


Virtual Terminal

by SarcasticTicTacs



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Ben is an FBI agent, Colors au, F/M, It's not stalking if it's your job, Soul Mate AU, Suffer it's slow burn now, modern day AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-01
Updated: 2018-04-22
Packaged: 2019-03-25 11:42:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 53,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13833543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SarcasticTicTacs/pseuds/SarcasticTicTacs
Summary: In all his entire life, Ben Solo had never seen color. That was something reserved for people with soulmates like his overbearing parents. Which was fine by him, he didn't need the distraction that came with being eternally bonded to someone, especially in his line of work as a FBI agent.That is, until a certain incident occurred, landing him in the hospital, leaving a nasty scar on the right side of his face. So he was reassigned to a desk job, monitoring the online and technological activity of a certain Individual.Imagine his surprise when he accessed their webcam and saw a girl unknowingly looking back at him. Imagine his even bigger surprise when his world exploded into color.In other words, Ben is the FBI agent monitoring Rey and he accidentally found his soulmate.





	1. Day Zero pt. 1

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written a fanfiction in over ten years. I'm really nervous about posting this. Sorry if there's any mistakes, I never had a proper English/Grammar class in my life. My school was very poor.

As per usual, Ben awoke ten minutes before his alarm went off, a habit he had developed during adolescence due to a fear of being late. He stared up at his gray ceiling, blearily eyed and somewhat sore, and got up with a groan in order to get ready for the day. Today was his first day back at work and his first day ever at the New York branch of the FBI. His parents, who lived in Brooklyn, had been ecstatic when he had told them he was being relocated from Quantico to the Empire State after the incident, it meant that they would be able to assist him in his recovery.

In his parent’s minds, that translated to Leia fretting over every single thing he did even though his arm was just in sling and half of his face was bandaged while Han sat on the couch drinking the beer from his refrigerator while watching television after he fixed everything in Ben’s new one-bedroom apartment that needed attention. Part of Ben wondered if his parent’s overbearingness stemmed from the fact that they were always far too busy with work to pay any attention to him as a child. Leia was a big time lawyer while Han managed a trucking business, leaving Ben to fend for himself most of the time. But now that his mother was retired and his father had chosen to open up a mechanic’s shop, they had a lot more leisure time and began making an effort to spend as much time as possible with him, sometimes to his displeasure.

Freshly showered with blow-dried hair, Ben opened up his closet and examined its contents briefly before choosing one of many black two piece suits. He normally wouldn’t dress so formal in his old office, but today he was meeting with Director Snoke for the first time in years and needed to give off a good impression so that he would finally get his next field assignment. Snoke had been one of Ben’s mentors back at the FBI Training Academy, had taken a liking to him, wrote him letters of recommendation, and was even the one to suggest that Ben use another name when he finally became a full-fledged agent, which came in handy when criminals and drug lords threaten to kill everyone in your family. There was nothing to worry about, Ben was sure that Snoke would knew how valuable of an asset Ben was to the task force.

He picked up a tie and held it out, flipping it over in analysis. It was one his mother had gifted him for his last birthday, which he had spent in the hospital. She had spared no expense, it was made of a fine material that caressed his skin gently and had no design, which was exactly how he liked his ties. The only problem was that Ben didn’t know what color it was. In his pain-killer addled mind he had forgotten to ask his mother, and after he was released he had pushed the question out of his mind completely.

In his twenty-nine years of life, Ben Solo had never once seen color, not even a splash or a hint of any such hues. That ability was reserved for people who had soulmates, like his parents. Instead, like everyone else who hadn’t found their soulmate, he saw the world in various shades of gray. He made his purchasing decisions, such as furniture or clothing, solely based on what the sales associates said looked lively and choosing something the complete opposite of that. As a result, he was stuck with a lot of black clothes and gloomy looking furniture that his mother assured him matched.

Some days, there were people who pitied him and his limited sight. It was getting rarer and rarer to get his age without ever meeting your soulmate, especially with the internet and dating apps making it so easy find your bonded person, even if they were someone living on the other side of the world. Whenever this came up, Ben would just scoff and inform them that being colorblind was just fine by him, he didn’t need the extra distraction of being tied to someone for eternity. Considering his line of work, it was probably better that he remained alone for the rest of his life. He liked the way things were now.

Putting the tie of unknown shade back, he picked out another one, one he knew for certain was black, and put it on. On his way out of his bedroom, Ben grabbed both of his phones, his work phone and his personal cell, pulling them off their chargers and going through his emails as he ate the sugary cereal he had brought on a whim and become addicted to. When he was done, he grabbed his briefcase, keys and wallet and headed out the door, but not before stopping in front of the mirror that hung in the apartment’s entryway.

Ben regarded his reflection with scrutiny. He had never been what one would call traditionally handsome, he had a nose that was slightly too big with teeth that were somewhat crooked and large ears that he never managed to grow into, but he was tall, physically fit and had thick, wavy hair that girls always fawned over and covered up his problematic ears. There was never really any reason to feel overly self-conscious during his adulthood, puberty was another story, but looking at his face now made him a tad bit nervous. Starting at his brow, going down the right side his face and onto his shoulder was a long and barely healed scar. Memories of a blade being dragged down his face shot through his mind as quickly as the bullet that embedded itself into his shoulder mere moments later, he was only grateful that he didn’t lose his eye.

With quick and precise moments, Ben didn’t waste any time in taking down the bothersome mirror and shoving it, none too gently, into his coat closet where he didn’t have to look at it anymore. Then, he put on his jacket and went to work.

*

The commute to the FBI headquarters of New York didn’t take very long, his apartment was only a couple of subway stops away and despite his preconceived notion of New Yorkers not giving a fuck on their morning pilgrimage to their jobs, many people seemed awfully willing to get out of his way and let him pass. Maybe it was his height that intimidated them, or perhaps the scar? Ben didn’t want to linger too much on the thought. 

At least he had his earbuds to drown out the noise.

Outside of the FBI building waiting for him was his partner, Armitage Hux, wearing a suit similar to Ben’s and his signature scowl evident on his face. Hux, like Ben, had been reassigned to New York after the incident, only he hadn’t been so agreeable with the decision, but wherever Ben was sent so was Hux, mostly because he was so difficult for anyone else to work with. Although, if you asked Hux, Ben was the difficult one. The two had a rivalry that dated back during their years in college which extended during their time at the Academy and now they had an uncanny partnership that worked far better than anyone had expected, together they brought down a wide variety of highly sought after and extremely dangerous criminals.

“Your face looks disgusting, Kylo,” Hux sneered in his accented voice as he held out a coffee for Ben to take. Kylo Ren was the name Ben had chosen to use whenever he was at work, call him anything if not caution. He took the outstretched coffee from the man, reluctantly. Coffee was so bitter.

“So does yours, but you don’t have an excuse,” Ben fired back. Hux rolled his eyes so hard Ben was sure they’d fall back into his head. The two men went through security, yawning through the necessary pat downs and metal detectors. Then, they waited, sipping their coffees, for someone to escort them to their new desks. “Did you read your email this morning?”

Hux snorted. “What do think I am? Some unprepared buffoon?” He made a show of chugging down the rest of his hot drink, not caring whether he burns his tongue or not. “Director Snoke is going to give us our new assignment as soon as we settle in. Thank god, I hated sitting on my arse all day waiting for you to suck it up and get better.”

“Damn it, Hux, I can’t just will my shoulder ligaments to heal,” Ben snapped at him. Eventually, a sheepish looking man by the name of Mitaka came and led them to an elevator. The young man tensed up as he got into the small space with the taller irritated men, he had probably heard of them. Under his breath, Ben hissed, “And I hate coffee.”

Hux smiled. “I know.”

Their desks were side by side, predictable, but a headache for Ben nonetheless. At least, there was something of a divider between each person and their neighbors. The desk came with all the necessary amenities: a phone, a stapler, the bottom drawer had a lock on it which he had the key for, and a state of the art desktop computer. Ben and Hux sat in their respective chairs, adjusting them to their above average heights. These chairs were much more comfortable than the one at their last office, they even came with back support.

“I’ll tell Director Snoke that you two are here,” Mitaka said nervously and then hurried away.

Hux leaned into Ben’s personal space and whispered, “I heard that mouse can see color.”

“Him?” Ben asked incredulously, watching as the jumpy man knocked on a door and stuck his head in.

Nodding, Hux continued. “Pity the poor girl who got stuck with that as her soulmate.”

Ben narrowed his eyes, giving Mitaka the benefit of the doubt. “Maybe he isn’t so skittish around people who haven’t kill before.”

“Maybe.” He finally leaned away. “I don’t like how he can do something I can’t though. Hate people like that.”

His comment made Ben snort. “You hate everyone anyways.”

“True,” Hux admitted and then he looked around. “Have you noticed how quiet everyone is being?”

Ben followed his gaze around the room, seeing that he was right. Everybody was far too busy to talk, focusing their attention intensely on their computer screens. All of them, Ben realized, were wearing some type of noise cancelling headphones, which he found more than a little strange. Ben didn’t have time to comment on it before Mitaka returned and showed them to Snoke’s office.

“Boys, come in. Sit down.” Director Snoke gestured to the two leather chairs in front of his desk and dismissed the other man. “Thank you, Mitaka.” All three men did as they were told, leaving Ben and Hux alone with Snoke.

“Director Snoke,” Ben and Hux greeted in unison. Snoke was an old man, bald and with wispy eyebrows that even Ben could tell were white, other light colors were always a little bit off. Some would say that it was far past time that Snoke should have retired, but somehow his old mentor had managed to stay in power longer than anyone expected. Ben had heard that everyone was shocked when Snoke had chosen to stay with the FBI even after an assault that left him disfigure beyond recognition. It was random attack, apparently, some crazed man threw acid on Snoke’s face, melting it away, as the director was exiting the subway. The subsequent blotched plastic surgeries nearly caused the man to go insane and left him with a scar running down the middle of his face. One of his light eyes was permanently higher than the other.

“Nice to see both of you again, Agent Hux,” Snoke grinned at Ben. “Agent Ren. I hope you are doing well after your…” He paused, looking for the proper words. “…last mission.”

Ben waved his concerns away. “I’m fine, sir. Hux is fine. We’re ready for our next mission.” Both men were greatly eager to get started.

Snoke leaned back in his chair. “About that,” he began, “you’re being reassigned. Both of you.”

The expectant looks immediately fell from both of their faces and it was Hux who sputtered out, “Excuse me?”

“Neither of you will being doing any sort of field work while you are located at the New York office.” Snoke announced, his voice devoid of emotion. “Your last mission was completely unsanctioned and resulted in one of you being captured.” He eyed Ben. “Think of this as probationary period until you two are deemed worthy for field work again.”

“You’re punishing us?” Ben spat out. “We caught a criminal wanted in nineteen different countries for human-trafficking, drugs, and murder. Sir, I gladly do it again even if it means getting my face shredded to pieces.”

“Quiet Ren,” Snoke commanded and Ben stopped speaking. “The fact of the matter is that you two disobeyed direct orders from your superiors back at Quantico because some of stupid, barely reliable, anonymous tip. Director Skywalker was very disappointed in both of you, especially Agent Ren.”

Clenching his teeth, Ben’s hand formed into a fist on his knee. He stayed silent, refusing to react to whatever his uncle thought of him.

“Where are we being reassigned to?” Hux calmly questioned and Ben never wanted to punch him more in his pointy nose than in that moment. Armitage Hux, always a sycophant.

“Agent Ren’s degree was in Computer Science and Engineering while you, Agent Hux, majored in Technology and Information Management. It has been decided that both of you will be assigned to the Monitoring Department which is here, right outside my office.” The tone in Snoke’s voice meant there would be no arguing, the decision has already been made, but that didn’t stop Ben from shooting up from his chair, furious and defiant.

“Monitoring?” He snarled. That was a desk job, meaning that Ben would stuck inside all day creeping on some unsuspecting person through a computer and taking notes on whatever they did or looked up on every piece of technology they owned. He would basically be a federally licensed stalker. “This is unbelievable! We deserve to be in the field!”

“You’ll deserve even less if you continue with your outburst, agent.” Snoke threatened and then gestured for them to leave. “Mitaka will give you the files of your Individuals. Go.”

Ben slammed the door opened, causing Mitaka and couple of his other co-workers who managed to hear the noise through their headphones to jump, Hux followed behind him with an exasperated sigh. With shaky hands, Mitaka handed both men a file, which Ben snatched angrily and stormed to his desk. Throwing down the thin file on his desk, Ben violently pulled out his chair and sat down, crossing his arms. “This is insulting.”

Hux strolled up casually, reading his file. “How the hell did someone with your temper pass the mental examination?”

“I don’t fucking know!” Ben barked. He eyed the file Hux was holding in his stupidly pale hands, noticing a striking difference compared to his. “Why is your file thicker than mine?” Hux’s was the size of a book meanwhile Ben’s looked completely empty.

“Don’t know,” Hux answered back, finally sitting in his chair and reading the first page. “It’s some guy named Poe Dameron. Lives in the area. Hispanic. Thirty-two, almost thirty-three. A former Navy pilot. Now he flies commercial airlines. Owns a corgi named Beebee. Apparently, his last Handler is on maternity leave. Who’d you get?”

Ben reluctantly reached for the folder, opening it and finding exactly one page of information. His narrowed his eyes to look at the small identification picture next the person’s name, but couldn’t make out any distinguishable details because the image was somewhat grainy and the shades of gray all looked similar. He read out the information on file. “Rey Niima. Nineteen. Lives in New York. She works part-time at  some sort of junkyard and at a diner. Takes classes at a community college for Mechanical Engineering. Draws as a hobby and has a roommate named Finn Trooper.” Ben’s eyes drifted to a very important piece of information, explaining the lack of content in her file. “She also just became an American citizen yesterday. British.”

“Congrats to her,” Hux said sarcastically, “she managed to cross the pond and now she’s the government’s to stalk. Hope she’s prepared for the annoying amount of comments people will have on her accent.” He turned on his computer. “Better get to work before Snoke demotes us to coffee boys.”

Ben did the same, quickly finding department issued headphones in one of the drawers in his desk and plugged them in. In his career, he had done a lot of shady stuff. Pretending to be a drug-dealer, befriending pedophiles, and using techniques that were considered more than a little rough during questioning, a person didn’t become one of the FBI’s best interrogators by being gentle, but none of that unnerved him as much as spying on an innocent young woman. This just made him dirty.

He probably would have felt even worse if she was doing anything remotely interesting. The girl only had two devices, an old laptop and a out of date smartphone. She had very little social media, the most notable being a blog where she rarely posts anything, but likes a lot of different artwork and gifs from television shows and movies, some of them action, others animated, and a small amount of them romantic fantasy. Ben couldn’t find any pictures of her anywhere, not on her phone or her computer, although he did find a bunch of algorithmic equations she was doing for homework, one of which was wrong, and there was nothing about her on her roommate’s social media either, that’s just led to a rabbit hole of different fandoms the boy was obsessed with. He even looked up her passport photo from Immigration to see if there was a better quality image there, but ran into the same problem before. _Why did the picture have to be so light?_

Hux was muttering something at his desk before he slammed down his fist in anger. “Whose idiotic idea was it to have cameras on every other part of the plane but not in the damn cockpit? All I have to work with is just fucking audio.”

Ben rubbed his hands against his face, one of his nails catching awkwardly on his scar. He had been at this for hours, and had yet to figure out what she looked like. Activating her webcam or phone camera was one of the last things he wanted to do. He shuddered to think what it would be like if he was on the opposite end of this ordeal.

A notification popped up on his desktop screen, telling him that she had just turned on her computer. Begrudgingly, he started typing in the commands for undetected access to her laptop’s camera and microphone, the last thing he needed was a green light to go off on her end indicating that said devices were on.

He heard her voice first, streaming from in the speaker on his headphones and into his ears, it was unmistakably British. “Wait, Finn! Don’t put in the garlic yet! I’m looking up the recipe!” The virtual terminal on his computer mirrored what was happening on her screen, she was currently looking up _how to make homemade garlic bread_.

After waiting for what seemed to be forever, the camera finally turned on and Ben was finally able to put a face to the name he had spent the last seven hours researching. She was young, looked exactly how old her file said she was. There was nothing more he could say, he could tell she had nice facial structure because her hair was pulled back into a bun and her clothes looked secondhand, which there was nothing wrong with. Her eyes darted across the screen, quickly scanning the instructions on how to make the dish. Rey smiled and turned to speak to someone off screen, Finn, probably. “Oh, this is going to taste so good. If we don’t burn it, that is.”

When she finally turned back to the laptop screen, it was as if they made eye contact for the first time, and Ben was fully aware of how creepy that sounded. Suddenly, an explosion of pressure occurred behind his eyes and his hands instinctively flew up to cover them. After rubbing at them vigorously, he removed his palms and groaned in pain. _What the hell just happened?_

Opening his eyes, he jumped slightly at the sight of his hands, no longer were they a shade of light gray, but something else he didn’t recognized. Ben’s head quickly snapped up and he looked around the office that had been dull and boring this morning and found it still equally lifeless, but not because of its lack of color. The plants in the corner were vibrant, he believed his mother had once told him they were green, and some of his co-workers were wearing colors so bright that they gave him a headache. He hit his knee against the bottom of his desk when he realized his stapler was not black like he once thought, but some very angry, he wasn’t sure how to describe it, hue.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Hux asked from his left. Ben slowly turned to face the man, his mouth hanging a little bit opened. His eyes widened at the bright mass of hair on his partner’s head, it was easily the most eye-catching of any of his co-workers’ hair.

“Jesus Christ,” Ben muttered, half in denial of what he was seeing and half afraid.

“Oh, fuck you,” Hux said back. “You’re not nice to look at either, Ren, you know?” He shook his head and returned to his work. “And close your damn mouth, you look like you’ve just seen color for the first time.”

Hearing feminine laughter, Ben’s attention was brought back to his computer. Rey was still there, only this time she wasn’t a mixture of very light shades of gray. Her eyes and hair were light but dark at the same, maybe they were what people called a medium tone. She laughed again at something her roommate said, causing her eyes to squint with a sparkle and a faint hue to dust her cheeks. Ben couldn’t help but think she was absolutely breathtaking in that moment.

He swallowed and looked at the clock, it was almost five o'clock, meaning he could go home soon. Where according to policy, he could hand over his surveillance duties to a night agent or continue to do so himself on his government issued phone, but with some limitations. Making up his mind, Ben quickly sent an email to Mitaka telling him to send all the necessary data to his phone and began packing up his things, including the notes he had been taking.

Noticing Ben’s movements, Hux regarded him suspiciously. “You’re leaving? On time? You always do overtime even when you get yelled at, which means I always do overtime and get yelled at.”

“Um, yeah,” Ben said awkwardly, shoving items haphazardly into his briefcase, almost taking his stapler with him. Then he quickly shrugged on his coat. “My shoulder, it’s hurting. Bullet wound, you know?” He paused. “Bye.” Then he briskly walked towards the elevator, not even noticing that Snoke was watching from the windows of his office.

Once alone, he sighed only to be interrupted by the chime of his work phone. His opened the message quickly and found that it had already been connected to both Rey’s laptop and phone with access to her microphone, but not her camera which was okay because Ben remembered her face very clearly, it was as if it was ingrained in his retinas.

As soon as he got out of the building, the various colors of New York assaulted him, although he was thankful that most of the buildings and streets were still gray. Ben yielded a taxi and was horrified at its disgusting choice of coloring, he gave the caddy instruction to go, not to his home, but to his parents’ house. The only people he knew that could see in the world as it was. He was exhausted and leaned against the backseat. Ben picked up his phone, his personal phone, and opened up the web browser, quickly typing into the search engine: _List of colors._

At the same time, his other phone was spilling out data on what Rey was doing. His eyes widened when he saw her latest search.

_How do you know when you’ve found your soulmate?_


	2. Day Zero pt. 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry there's not much Reylo in this, I wanted to write some Solo Family Fun. I plan to write something with Rey this weekend. Also, more Hux.
> 
> Just a warning, I don't really know how commas work because my school didn't teach us about grammar. I've been meaning to look it up...

Ben had to fight the urge to open the taxi’s window and throw the cell phone outside, no doubt it would be destroyed as it collided with the street. It sounded so tempting, but instead his grip tighten around the device, something was preventing him from doing so. Right now, outside of the office, this was his only connection to her.

Rey was beginning to type once more, searching for and clicking on many pages and articles about soulmates and what exactly happens when you find yours. Ben could easily answer that, he remembers the terrible migraine that came on without warning and the exploding pain behind his eyes. It had lasted only a few seconds, but he found himself in a whole new world.

Her next search confused him.

_Are Cassian Andor and Jyn Erso soulmates?_

Ben frowned at the phone. Who the hell were Cassian Andor and Jyn Erso? Why did those names sound so familiar? Racking his brain, he vaguely recalled reading the names on Rey’s nearly empty blog earlier. They were the main characters of a popular book series called _Rogue One_ , and judging by the amount of art she had liked, she was most definitely a fan of the novels.

Without any warning, Rey’s phone died. _Goddamit._

Sighing irritably, Ben prepared to fix the problem. He was surprisingly curious where this was going, Ben quickly dug through his briefcase, looking for those earbuds which had drowned out the noise during his morning commute. They were at the very bottom, the wires were completely tangled beyond belief. A string of curses escaped his mouth, causing the cabby to look at him through the front mirror as if he was insane, and begrudging began to untangle the mess. It certainly felt like he was going insane. As soon as Ben was done, he quickly plugged them into the headphone jack and easily accessed her roommate’s phone.

It seemed like she was frustrated with something as well. “Crap, my battery died. I forgot to charge it.” Afterwards, her voice changed, sounding as if she was trying to persuade Finn of something. “I have solid proof that my theory is correct. A lot of the articles on the internet said that one of the symptoms of finding your soulmate is pain behind your eyes, like some kind of headache. Remember in the first book that Jyn had one when she got to the base!”

“No way,” Finn replied, disagreeing with her argument, “Jyn already had that headache before she met Cassian! Remember? Jyn is a strong independent woman, she doesn’t need a love interest. Plus, the author never mentioned anything about color in any of the books. Why is that? Because it doesn’t need to exist in this world!”

 _It’s fiction_ , Ben thought to himself. _Why are they having a full-on debate about this?_

“It’s implied that it does! Plus, she was in a high security prison! Of course she would have a headache!” Rey shot back, she was filled with confidence. He could imagine her with her hands on hips, staring down Finn while she waited for a counterargument. “Besides, there’s nothing wrong with a strong female character having a love interest, Jyn can still be a badass with a man by her side. They’re meant to be together, Finn. Trust me. We just have to wait for the movie to come out and you’ll see I’m right.”

“What good would that be?” Finn questioned and Ben heard a distinct crunching sound, were they eating chips? “Rey, neither one of us can see color. Without soulmates we’ll never find out who’s right! ”

That statement made Rey go quiet, and Ben suddenly felt sorry for her. She had him as her soulmate and he wasn’t exactly the kindest or most caring person to be around. On top of that, Rey would never be able to meet him either. Handlers weren’t allowed to interfere with the lives of the civilians they monitored, it was against regulations and if he got caught doing so then he would most likely lose his job. He already broke the rules once, which was what landed him in this bizarre situation in the first place.

Finn’s next words were sympathetic and low, as he realized he had done something that upset her. “I’m sorry I said that, Rey. I know how much the idea of finding yours means to you. I’m sure both of ours will show up someday and we’ll even have a double wedding. That way, we’ll save a lot of money!”

She laughed, but Ben had a feeling it was more for Finn’s sake than hers. “It’s okay. We got just got a little carried away. We could just ask someone about the movie anyways.” To a normal person she probably sounded fine, but years of performing FBI interrogations told Ben otherwise. She was sad. “Besides, I’m fine with being alone. I guess a soulmate is just a fairytale for some people, including someone like me.” She sighed. “I’m going to go take a shower.”

Then a door shut.

While her words were a bit harsh, they was some merit to them. Sometimes, people never find their soulmates and go through the rest of their lives alone and colorless. Ben’s uncle Luke was a prime example of this, instead he had thrown himself into his work, and as a result became highly successful. When he was younger, Ben had wanted to follow in his uncle’s footsteps, firmly believing that color wasn’t important. If Luke could live without it, well then, so could he. He had such a good relationship with his uncle as well, that is, until they had a falling out regarding Ben’s decision to go under Snoke’s tutorage. They haven’t spoken in years despite the fact that Luke was the current director of the FBI.

The taxi stopped right in front of his destination, and he quickly handed the necessary amount of money to the cabby. As soon as he was completely sure Rey was gone, Ben shut off Finn’s microphone, removing his headphones as he hesitantly strolled up to his childhood home.

It was no mansion like people expected a hot-shot lawyer like Leia Organa to live in, everyone always assumed it was something much larger, but she agreed to live in a small two bedroom home simply because his father liked it. Apparently, as a show of gratitude for her selfless sacrifice, Han surprised her a couple of days after they finished moving in by transforming the smaller room, the one that would later be Ben’s, into a nursery. In the way Leia tells the story, she broke down crying and asked Han how he knew she was pregnant, but he was seemingly unaware.

Han Solo fainted on the spot.

It felt strange to have to knock on the door of the place where he had lived in for most of his life. Technically, he could just barge in, Ben still had a key, it was heavy in his pocket. He wasn’t comfortable with doing so, until recently he parents had felt more like strangers than a loving family.

After waiting for a few moments, it was his father who threw open the door, looking completely and utterly surprised that his son had chosen to come here out of his own free will. “Ben?” Han said, incredulously. “What are you doing here? You okay, kid?”

“I need to talk to you and mom,” Ben simply stated. Han’s eyes widened, totally not expecting those words ever to come of Ben’s mouth, but moved aside regardless, wordlessly inviting him into the house. Ben stood in the living room, examining everything in a new light. Of course, there were the colors he had never been aware of before. The list of colors he had searched up earlier was becoming useful, he managed to sneak a peek at it before he got distracted by Rey. The walls were some shade of green and most of the furniture was a pale brown. At least the fireplace was still white.

The family’s old long-hair dachshund, Chewie III laid in his bed in the corner, only raising his head slightly to see who had entered the house and wagged his tail excitedly once he saw Ben. But the dog didn’t bother to get up and greet him, instead Chewie chose to go back to sleep. It looked like his mother’s cats, Artoo and Threepio, weren’t around, meaning that they were probably outside, which Ben was grateful for. The felines always had a habit of crawling all over him.

A familiar voice called out from the kitchen, “Han, who was it?” Muttering under her breath as she walked into the living room. “I hope it wasn’t that vacuum salesman again, I told them last time we already have one.” Leia stopped short once she saw her son standing in front of her and a smile instantly appeared on her face. “Ben,” she breathed his name like they hadn’t seen each other in years, but it was only three weeks ago when she told him to lay down in bed or she’d make him get a haircut. It was ridiculous, at that point his wounds had healed enough that Ben didn’t need help to move around anymore. Han had clapped him on his good shoulder and simply said it was better to not to argue with Leia, she always made good on her threats.

“Hello,” Ben greeted his parents uncomfortably, not really knowing how he should treat them. Years of abandonment issues and resentment didn’t just disappear once you make him chicken soup or fix his kitchen’s cabinets, but that wasn’t something he should focus on right now. Pushing the thought away, Ben reached into his pocket, retrieving both of his phones and turned them off before stuffing the devices into his briefcase. No doubt the government issued one would send a notification to Mitaka or whoever else was charge of the phones. Later, he would just lie and say that Rey went to sleep early. Outside of an interrogation room, Ben was a horrible liar due a habit of always wearing his emotions on his face all the time, but there was no doubt he could pull this one off, he had to. “Where are your phones,” he whispered, not knowing if anyone was watching or listening in.

The question confused them, which was warranted, seeing it came out of nowhere. It made them look at each other before going back to him. It was Leia who answered him. “They’re in the bedroom. Why? Do you need one?”

“Go turn them off,” Ben basically commanded her, it came out a bit more rude than he had intended, but he couldn’t take any chances. Everything had to be secured from prying ears. What he was about to tell them about couldn’t ever be spoken of this house, the punishment of making this public knowledge would be far more severe than just losing his job.

She eyed him curiously, no doubt suspicious about what was happening, but walked up the stairs nonetheless and went to the section of the house that held both the bedrooms.

“Ben, what is going on?” Han asked, sounding just as concerned as when his son appeared on the doorstep.

“Shush,” Ben told him as he none too gently threw his briefcase onto the couch. The loud noise it made as it landed on the seat didn’t receive any reaction from Chewie at all, there was no doubt that a younger dog would have freaked out. “Keep your voice down.”

Han looked at Ben in disbelief. “Kid, did you just _shush_ me?”

There wasn’t any time to explain anything as Leia came down the steps back into the living room, radiating a frightful aura, one that reminded Ben of when she would scold him as a child. “Benjamin Amidala Skywalker Organa Solo, what is going on with you?”

 _Oh boy._ He was in for it now. His mother only used his entire name when or she was furious with him and he was in extreme trouble, like the time he stole that motorcycle from the garage and crashed it. If it wasn’t for the broken arm and neck brace, it would have been totally worth it. But now, Ben had to muster up the courage and do something so terrifying that he had never dared to it during his lifetime, he ignored Leia Organa.

Dark eyes scanned the room, falling on the television. Could it transmit something? It was connected to a satellite after all, but he wasn’t sure. Maybe it was in that instruction manual he barely skimmed over. Ben didn’t want to risk anything, definitely not this. “Is there a room without any technology?” His voice was so low that his parents had to lean in order to hear him.

“Not that I know of.” It was Han who replied this time, still not sure as to what was going on. Most likely, he was desperately hoping his son was not high on drugs right now. His father ran his hand through his hair, a nervous tick that Ben knew he had inherited. “Even the bathroom has a radio in it.”

Leia pondered the question for a bit. “Well, there is the pantry. There’s only food in there.”

“Great, let’s go.” Ben began to push his parents in the direction of the kitchen when he paused abruptly in front of a certain framed photograph that was on the wall, it had been hanging there for as long as he could remembered. It was of his mother and her longtime friend since adolescence, Amilyn. Ben cocked his head to the side as he regarded the photo, the two women looked young, but that wasn’t what caught his eye. “Since when did Holdo have purple hair?”

“Oh, she’s had it like that since forever, even before we met. Not many can pull off as well as she can,” Leia stated matter-of-factly, waving off his question. Then she paused, completely speechless as she began to comprehend what just happened. Both his parents turned to look at him at same time, shocked expressions on their faces.

His mother’s brain seemed have to shut off because she could not get any words out, instead she sputtered something that could only be called gibberish since nothing was actual words. Han’s mouth, on the other hand, worked perfectly fine. Each syllable in his sentence was emphasized. **_“What did you just say?”_**

 _Fucking hell_. They were reacting as if the unbelievable had just happened. “I’ll explain later.” He began to push them again, they almost tripped a couple of time as the trio walked towards the other side of the kitchen. “Pantry, now.”

Ben violently yanked the door opened and shoved them both into the small walk-in storage room without any warning. He quickly joined them, wordlessly slamming the door shut behind him.

“Cozy,” Han grumbled. With the two men of the Solo family being over six feet tall, their large stature ensured there was not much room for the three of them in the cramped space to move around easily.

“Oh, be quiet, Han,” Leia growled, she seemed very irritated having to squeeze between her husband and son. “At least you don’t have a can of tomato sauce digging into your spine.”

“Why do you two tell me to be quiet all the time?” Ben found a finger pointed at him. “See, this is where your get your grumpiness from. Not me, her.” He rolled his eyes, but he knew his mother took no offense from the comment, Han was always joking now when it came to making little sarcastic jeers at his family. It was a strange dichotomy from how they acted during Ben’s earlier years of life, a time when they were always fighting with one another.

Meanwhile, Leia’s eyes were fully concentrated on his scarred face. Under the scrutinizing gaze of his mother, Ben suddenly felt like he was five years old again and just got caught doing something he shouldn’t have. “You, explain. What the hell is going on with you? You’ve never been this paranoid before.”

Running his fingers through the locks of his hair, Ben sighed, “You guys can’t tell anyone what I’m about to reveal to you.” His parents nodded. “Seriously, I could get into a lot of trouble for telling you this.”

“Jesus, Ben. Just tell us.” Han’s face was grim.

“You two know how I was reassigned to New York because of the incident?” Leia and Han were listening intently. “Well, I wasn’t just reassigned to the New York branch, the director has forbidden Hux and me from doing any field work for the meantime.” The way Leia’s shoulder’s relaxed at the news didn’t go unnoticed. “Director Snoke gave us desk jobs, the Monitoring Department exactly,” Ben deadpanned, his face completely unenthusiastic as the memories of sitting in a desk all day came back to him.

“Monitoring Department?” Han looked more perplexed now than before. “What’s that? Do you monitor the missions field agents go on or something? Do you know anything about this, princess?”

Leia shook her head. “I’ve never heard of this before.”

“It’s better that you haven’t. The Monitoring Department is a very secretive part of the FBI. Nobody outside of the agency knows it exists. In fact, not many people inside the agency know about it, but people have been speculating lately.” Apparently, that was making things difficult for some of the other agents in the office. “It keeps track of the technological and internet usage of United States citizens. An agent is usually assigned to more than one person at a time, but Hux and I are only just starting out so we only got one each.”

Ben could practically see the gears turning in his parent’s head as they tried to make sense of what he just told them. “So,” Han started slowly, “there are people watching us?”

“And listening.” Ben added swiftly. “We can tap into anything with a microphone or a camera. Computers on our side allow us to watch whatever you doing on your phone, computer, gaming consoles or anything else with access to the internet or connects to a satellite.”

His father’s brows furrowed the more Ben explained what exactly the job entailed. “I have another question.” He pointed a finger at himself. “Who watches me?”

A quick slap on his arm caused him to jump slightly. _“Han!”_ Leia exclaimed. “You know he can’t tell us that. He’s probably already said too much.”

“What? Aren’t you a least bit interested, princess?” Her glare at him was ice cold. “Nevermind.”

“But Ben, I don’t understand why you’re telling us all this.” Leia said. “What does this have anything to do with what happened earlier? You could see that Holdo’s hair was purple, right?

“Amongst other things,” he answered.

“So you finally found your soulmate. Thank god.” Han sounded relieved and triumphant for some reason. “We thought it’d never happen. So, did you meet her at the office? Of course you did, you hardly go anywhere else.”

Ben clenched his teeth together, ignoring that comment and found himself anxious as to how his parents would react. What surprised him even more was that he cared what they thought. These were the people who constantly came and went when he was a child, leaving him alone most of time and forcing him to mature far before he was ready. It was no wonder he became such an emotional mess, and yet, no matter how many tantrums he had or how distant Ben was, his parents always made an effort to spend time with him during those rare times they were together. They had loved him all this time, even when they fought and he was sure they would never stop loving him.

That thought gave him the confidence he needed to tell them the truth.

“Yes, I saw her at the work.”

“Oh, Ben! That’s wonderf—“

He cut off his mother before she could finish congratulating him. Ben blurted out the next part very quickly. “She’s the person I’m monitoring. I was able to make eye contact through the computer’s camera, although it seems like it only went one way”

The pantry grew silent, everyone unsure of what to say next to break the silence. After what felt like hours, except it had been actually less than two minutes, was when his father proclaimed, “Oh my god, your job is to stalk your soulmate.”

“I’m not stalking her!” Ben exclaimed, embarrassed that actually in some sense his father was right. He even had the same thought at the office earlier. In any other situation, watching a young girl as she unknowingly went about her day would definitely considered stalking. “I don’t enjoy it! I’m just doing my job!”

Leia put a hand on his shoulder, the one that had not been injured only a couple of months ago, and looked at him sympathetically. “It is a bit creepy, honey.” Ben let out an exasperated groan as his mother’s hand moved from his shoulder to his back, and began rubbing small circles there, probably in an attempt to make him feel better. It actual felt more strange than comforting, but it was amazing that she could move that well in the tiny space. “What do you know about her? What’s she like?”

At least this, he knew the answers to even before he started watching her. Although it wasn’t said aloud, that still sounded weird and gross. “According to her file, she’s British. She’s about 5’7” and got held up at Immigration when she first came to Ameri—“

“Yeah, yeah. That’s all interesting,” Han said impatiently, _“but what’s she like?”_

“Oh,” Ben began as he searched his head for something to say, he didn’t really have much to go off since he had only known about her for about ten hours or so. “She’s,” he paused again before recalling her argument with her roommate earlier, “ _very_ passionate about things she’s likes?” It was more of a question than a statement. Honestly, Ben had been too pissed at Snoke that he didn’t even bother to fully memorize the rest of her file. He’ll do it later at when he got back to his apartment. It’s not like it would be too difficult to remember, it was only a page long after all. “She draws.”

“An artist!” Leia clapped her hands together. “That’s amazing! Is her art in any galleries? I would just love to see them someday. Do you know what type of medium she uses?”

“Wait, no, drawing is just her hobby,” Ben corrected her. “She works at a diner a couple days a week and some place called Jakku. At least, I think that's what it’s called.”

 _“Jakku?”_ Han seemed absolutely sickened by the name. _“That junkyard?”_

“Han, stop. It’s obvious you don’t like the place, but she’s seems to be a hard worker. Besides, it’s hard for people to get jobs these days, even with a degree.”

“She’s actually a part-time student right now.” He really hoped that his parents wouldn’t ask about her major because no matter how hard he tried, Ben couldn’t remember it at all. Like everything else, it was probably in her file. _Oh shit. I really suck at my job._

“A student?” His mother was starting to sound skeptical now. Ben immediately knew what was coming next. “Exactly how old is she?”

He chose to stare at the shelves filled with food behind them and murmured the answer. When he met their eyes again, Ben found both of them had raised their eyebrows. There was no doubt that they wanted a proper response. Nervous, he ran his fingers through his hair, thinking that he should probably stop doing that now that he was aware how much he did it. “Nineteen.”

Han and Leia looked at each other and began to laugh, his mother covering her mouth as she began to snort. When his father’s laughter died down enough so he was able to talk, “Kid, that’s not too bad. That’s the same difference between your mom and me.”

“That was in the olden days!” Ben exclaimed, he could feel his face heating up. His cheeks were probably turning red. “It was more acceptable back then!”

Leia’s laughter stopped instantly. _“Olden days?”_

“Acceptable?” Han shook his head. “It was anything but acceptable! You should have seen the look on your grandparent’s face when she brought me home. Have I ever told you the story of how I met your mother?”

“Han, not this again.”

“Yes,” Ben deadpanned, “Many times. I’m pretty sure you’ve told me every year after I learned about soulmates.”

But it was too late, his father was already reminiscing. “Your mother was a second year undergraduate student at Harvard. Like you and your girl, she was nineteen and I was twenty-nine. She had just ordered a textbook and it had accidentally taken a few weeks to deliver. You see, she was super pissed when the delivery person knocked on her apartment door and she opened it. Guess who that UPS driver was?”

He didn’t know why his father always thought this was a big reveal. Ben already knew that Han was a UPS driver before he managed the trucking business which was before the mechanic’s shop. “It was you…”

“It was me!” Han sounded so excited as he ignored Ben. “Leia was so happy when our eyes met when we got those headaches and everything changed from grey. It was so weird, suddenly able see color like that. I swear, she was just tearing up about it.”

“I don’t think that’s why sh—“

His mother quickly stopped Ben from saying anymore. “Okay, can we get out of the pantry now? This isn’t what I meant when I said I wanted us to be closer as a family.”

“That’d be nice.”

“Yeah, I’m going home now.”

Ben could tell his parents were disappointed that he wasn’t going to stay longer, but they probably knew not to push it. They seemed content enough that he chose to share such an important secret with them. He said his goodbyes and scratched Chewie behind the ear on his way out, the old dog happy for Ben’s attention.

His hands were on the door’s handle, ready to leave, when he heard meowing coming from below him and felt a familiar sensation against his legs. As expected, when he looked down, Ben saw Artoo and Threepio rubbing themselves on his shins while purring loudly. Leia must have let the duo back inside. It wasn’t like Ben hated the cats, he actually enjoyed playing with them during his rare visits, but he didn’t like the way they always clung onto him, quite literally.

Ben was finally able to get out the door once he pried the felines off his knees, they were beginning to climb, and went to go stand on the sidewalk as he waited for the taxi he called. He contemplated taking out the phones from the briefcase that was hanging by his side and turning them back on, but was glad when he decided against it as his parents called out to him. When Ben turned around, he found them hurrying towards him, stopping right in front of him.

Leia smiled before doing something that shocked him to his core. She hugged him.

Part of him felt bad that he had stiffened up when she made contact, but Leia was neither insulted nor hurt by the lack of response. It was a strange feeling, he was sure that he hadn’t been hugged over a decade. When she pulled away, there was a gentle expression on her face. “You never told us her name.”

Ben was far too focused on what had just happened before his brain was able to process the question immediately. “Rey. Her name is Rey.”

“That’s a beautiful name.”

Leia told him goodbye once more and hurried back into the house, apparently it was too cold outside for her to handle.

Han lingered as they waited for Ben’s taxi to arrive, neither of them saying anything. It had always been difficult for the two of them to find a topic they were both interested in. His father liked cars, enough that he opened his own mechanic’s shop and flew planes as hobby, while Ben liked…what did he like? His face scrunch up in concentration, but nothing came to mind. Ben’s life had been so devoted to the FBI for such a long time that he couldn’t really remember anything he did before it. _When was the last time I did anything for myself?_

The silence was broken when Han spoke first. “Jakku is shit.”

Ben hadn’t expected his father to say something, “What?”

“Jakku is a complete shithole.” They turned to face each other as Ben was trying to comprehend what exactly Han getting at. “I can offer Rey a job at the Millennium Falcon. You know, get her out of there.”

“Dad, you can’t give her a job. I’m her Handler.“ Ben reminded him. “The rules say I can’t go anywhere near her.” The suggestion was completely ridiculous, there was no way that this would go well for anyone involved.

“Wow, you just called me ‘Dad’. Haven’t heard that in a long time.” He smirked and then let it go, knowing not to make a huge deal out of it. “Anyways, rules are meant to be broken.”

Ben groaned. It was frustrating that Han didn’t realize how delicate the situation. “You ca—“

“The owner’s a complete pervert.”

“Do it.”

At that moment, the lights of the taxi appeared at the end of the street and Ben realized what he just agreed to. The words had just come out of his mouth automatically and he had no idea why. It was odd, he just felt the need to get Rey away from her disgusting boss no matter what the repercussions were.

The cab drove up to them and the driver asked if he was the one who called. Ben nodded and was about to get into the car when Han put his hand on the door, preventing Ben from opening it.

“Sunglasses,” his dad said. Ben’s eyes narrowed in confusion and waited for him to elaborate. “Sunglasses, they block your eyes from releasing the chemical that activates the soulmate phenomenon. Ever notice how nobody wears them, almost everyone wants to find their soulmates so a lot of people avoid using them. I read it at the doctor’s office.” Han grinned and added. “It doesn’t matter which person wears the glasses.”

Releasing the door, Han walked away without saying anything else. Ben was frozen to his spot, dumbfounded and trying to analyze what just happened, until the impatient driver demanded to know if Ben he was planning on getting in anytime soon. Shaking himself out of his stupor, he got into the taxi and finally went home to his empty apartment.

The next day he bought a pair of sunglasses on his way to work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My sister's favorite character is Han.
> 
> Thank you all for all the feedback and interest in this story. I was very nervous when I first posted it and thought I would only get like 20 views, but all your support encourages me to grow as a writer. I tried to reply to every comment, but if I missed some then I'm sorry.


	3. Day One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to rewrite the second half of this chapter because I hated it. 
> 
> Still don't really understand commas, but I'm trying.

This was crazy. He was crazy. If there were any unscheduled mental examinations at the office today then Ben knew, without a doubt, he would fail.

It wasn’t his fault he had happened to pass by a store that sold glasses on his morning commute or that Ben just happened to stop in front the display window and it definitely wasn’t his fault that he decided to go in. It was curiosity, that was all.

The sales associate seemed surprised that someone was browsing through sunglasses, saying that they couldn’t remember the last time they actually sold any.

Ben found a couple that he thought would complement his face even with the scar, there were ones that looked better than his actual glasses which, of course, he never wore. He was dead-set in his opinion that reading glasses were far too inconvenient and unnecessary, the optometrist had certainly been wrong when they prescribed those. Eventually, Ben picked the ones he liked the most and approached the register to pay, completely unfazed by the judgmental stares the other patrons were throwing his way. Besides, he had gotten used to people gawking at him a long time ago.

After the item was rung up, Ben handed over his card, not even caring about the price. The cashier looked appalled that this transaction was really happening, but gingerly placed the glasses into a case regardless. As the sales person handed it over, they blurted out the question that probably everyone in the store wanted to ask. “What about your soulmate?”

“I already found my soulmate.”

He left without saying another word.

The moment Ben stepped outside, purchase in hand, he immediately wanted to smash his head against a wall. It was as if his brain had been on autopilot inside the store, he hadn’t even thought of the implications what he had just done. What would the guard think as he went through security and searched his briefcase? What would everyone else think if word ever got around? Most likely everyone would assume he was a selfish jerk for robbing his soulmate of finding eternal happiness. No, wait. That was already happening.

 _Oh fuck, what would Hux say?_ The man would probably never let it go.

Ben knew, in that moment, that he would have to do the one thing he was absolutely terrible at. He would have to lie. There was no way that such an impulsive decision would ruin his reputation.

Before rounding the corner to the FBI headquarters, Ben took out the sunglasses and threw away any evidence that suggested they had only been bought that morning, all while avoiding any cameras that surround the building. Evading detection was a skill he had learned early on in his training and exceptionally proficient at. And given the fact that he was one of the agency’s most accomplished operatives, he had gone on missions where he faced worse than this. This wouldn’t be difficult at all.

Or so he thought.

Ben had been severely unprepared for how dark the colors would become. A sound of dismay involuntarily escaped his mouth as he put on the glasses and his eyes began to ache. For someone who had only just experienced color for the very first time yesterday, it was extremely difficult to discern what was what through the lenses. At that moment, Ben really wished he could only see shades of grey again. At least, he wouldn’t be so disoriented.

Shaking away the discomfort and keeping his head down, Ben managed to enter the building without drawing any attention to himself. Passing through security was easy enough. It was obvious that the guard wanted to say something, but decided against it because, even with covered eyes, he could feel the infamous intimidating glare of Agent Kylo Ren looking straight at him.

Ben let out a sigh as soon as he was in the elevator, thankful that the rumors that Kylo Ren was unhinged were known at various FBI branches. Once the elevator stopped on the floor which housed the Monitoring Department, Ben stepped out and walked across the floor to where his desk and the most important person that played a part in his plan were.

He stopped abruptly at the sight before him.

There was Armitage Hux already sitting at his desk, but instead of looking prim and proper like he normally did, the man resembled a zombie more than anything else. There were dark circles under his eyes and his orange hair, something Ben still wasn’t use to, was pointing in every direction as if Hux had been frantically running his hands through it. His suit jacket was off, hanging on the back of his chair, leaving him in a white dress shirt with the top buttons undone. There were empty wrappers of food from the vending machine, half-eaten boxes of Chinese food and coffee cups scattered around his computer. With half-closed eyes Hux was staring at the bright screen before him, using a pair of earbuds instead of the noise silencing headphones they received yesterday. He was resting his head in the palm of his hand.

“I want to go home.” Hux murmured as he heard Ben approaching.

Putting down his briefcase next to his chair, Ben regarded the half-dead man with raised eyebrows. “Have you been here all night?”

Hux groaned, a noise that was probably meant to be some sort of confirmation. “Did you know that some flights from New York to Japan can take about fourteen hours, eighteen when you make layovers?”

“Why did you stay here then?” Ben asked incredulously. “There are night agents for this type of thing.”

“At first, they were just talking about the plane’s systems and whatever. Then he starting saying stuff about the time when he was in the Navy. I wanted to compare their training to ours.” Hux's words were very quiet, no doubt because of the lack of sleep. “After that, he started talking about a Neflix show which I’ve been meaning to watch, the way he described it makes me feel like I’ve seen it now. And then, he talked about his dog.”

“He talked about his dog for over ten hours?” This was unbelievable. If Hux had stayed here to listen to a man talk about his pet then he truly was the idiot Ben had always thought he was.

“Let it be known that Poe Dameron really loves his dog.” Hux brought one of the many cups of coffee to his lips, only to find it was empty and stared at it like it had wronged him somehow. “He hates putting Beebee in boarding houses when he’s gone.”

“Didn’t you only have audio? You’re insane.”

“You won’t being saying that when I get authorized to go back into the field while you’re stuck here.” Then Hux stretched, arms in the air and leaning back in his chair. It was then when he finally looked at Ben, squinting his eyes as if he wasn’t sure what his was seeing. “Why are you wearing sunglasses?”

This was it, it was Ben’s moment to shine. For the first time outside of an interrogation room or an undercover mission, he was going to lie without his face giving him away. This had to be perfect. In the short amount of time they've been here, literally less than two days, Hux had become one of the biggest gossips in the office. Word would definitely get around. Ben looked at him straight in the face.

“I had laser eye surgery.”

Hux’s eyes narrowed, obviously not believing a word Ben had just said. “You had laser eye surgery…”

Ben nodded. “Yes.”

“You’re a horrible liar, Ren.”

“It’s true.” He was desperately trying to keep up the ruse. How the hell was Hux still this observant after being awake for more than twenty-four hours? Ben came to the conclusion that he needed way more practice when it came to not telling the truth. “You know how much I’ve hated my reading glasses so I finally got rid of them. That’s why I left work in such a hurry yesterday, I forgot about my appointment.”

Turning his chair to face him, Hux cocked an eyebrow. “Aren’t you supposed to stay at home for like two weeks after laser eye surgery?”

“I can’t just take two weeks off of work when we just started here yesterday.” It was a good reason, one Hux couldn’t even argue. “That’s why I have the sunglasses so UV rays don’t fuck up my eyes and make me go blind.”

“I'll admit that does make some sense,” Hux muttered. “Whatever, I don’t give a shit anymore. It’s probably a good thing. The combination of your scar and glasses would probably make you look worse than you already do.” Ben rolled his eyes, he had become immune to Hux’s comments about his face a long time ago. “The pilot’s asleep right now so I’m finally going to get some sleep too. Ren, don’t you dare wake me up or else I’ll shoot you in your other shoulder.”

Even though Ben wanted to point out that neither of them were permitted to carry weapons right now, he decided against it. The other man severely needed some rest, not another argument. Plus, Hux would hopefully be less annoying after a few hours of sleep.

It was surprising that Hux was able to fall asleep as soon as he closed his eyes and put his head on his desk, snoring loudly. For the first time ever, Ben envied him. What took seconds for Hux took Ben hours. He couldn’t remember the last time he had a full eight hours of sleep, memories often invaded his dreams.

Ben sat in his chair doing nothing except waiting. There wasn’t much he could do until Rey used her phone or turned on her laptop. Finally, his phone buzzed as a notification appeared on the screen saying that she was doing something with her phone. Ben switched to his computer since it was far more equipped to carry out tasks than the government’s handheld device.

According to the clock, it was already ten in the morning, and the calendar Rey kept on her phone said today was her sleep in day. She didn’t need to be at the Jakku Junkyard until one. The idea of her going back to that place, back to her lewd boss, disgusted him.

He thought of last night. Would Han really make good on his offer? How would he do it? Ben could easily imagine his father strolling into Jakku, telling Rey’s boss to fuck off while offering her a job at the same time. There was a chance that Han, regardless of his old age, might even punch him. Ben would pay to see that.

Something inside of him wanted to see her again.

Even though Ben knew he was Rey’s soulmate, she did not. He was still a complete stranger to her. A stranger behind a computer, who happened to be watching and listening to everything she did or said every single day.

That was so unsettling, even to him. It probably would be to anyone. If stalking people was what he was going to have to do for the rest of his career then Ben seriously contemplated quitting on the spot. _God, I miss field work._

A few minutes later, Rey started using some application on her phone to message Finn. Ben didn’t know why they didn’t just text or call each other, wasn’t that the purpose of having a phone plan? The app allowed them to send pictures back and forth, some of them even had captions that didn’t even have anything to with the image. They lived together, why was Rey sending him a picture of their sofa? Finn definitely knew what it looked like.

Ben convinced himself that his lack of knowledge on the subject was a result of being far too preoccupied with work. Therefore, as a result, he didn’t have time to keep up with the latest trends. It had nothing to do with his age what so ever.

Soon enough, Rey’s laptop turned on and Ben reluctantly activated the virtual terminal. At first, she was searching for any job openings. The browser’s window was minimized and she opened what looked to be a resume, it didn’t have much on it. Rey must have been frustrated because she quickly closed both the document and the tab she had been looking at.

Ben assumed Rey was trying to take her mind off of her current situation because she began to watch videos on the internet. There wasn’t any pattern to what she clicked on. One moment it was an art tutorial and then the next she was watching something that was a compilation of short videos. Her choice of videos also included the trailer for the _Rogue One_ movie, meaning Ben now knew the answer to her heated discussion with Finn yesterday, but he would never be able to tell her which one of them was right.

The events of yesterday came flooding back to him. In an instant, whether he liked or not, his life had changed. All because of some random girl he had seen for less than a couple of minutes. That strange sensation he had felt earlier came back. It was the same thing, he wanted to see her again. The temptation was too strong and against his better judgement, Ben activated the camera.

Rey wore her hair exactly like she had yesterday when he first saw her, a bun with a couple of wisps hanging down, except this time Ben actually knew what color it was. What he couldn’t figure out was if her eyes had been brown or green, maybe it was a combination of both? Did those exist? Right now, the sunglasses prevented him from finding out. He would have to find a more thorough list of colors when he got home.

Something must have happened because she became very anxious and started to bite her lip, it was probably a habit Rey did unconsciously when she was nervous like when Ben would run his fingers though his hair. At least, they had something in common.

Ben turned his attention away from her and back to her computer in an effort to see what was making her so anxious. Her mouse was hovering over a certain icon on her browser which, even with the glasses, Ben could see that it changed color. Rey had an email.

After mustering enough courage, Rey clicked on it and Ben immediately covered his face with his hands, letting out a groan as he saw its contents. It was her grades. Once again, he was reminded of the large age difference between them. She was in that awkward phase where she was a teenager becoming a young adult, and then there was Ben. Almost thirty years old with a solid career, his days at university and the academy were far behind him. It wasn’t helping that it suddenly occurred to him that when he was ten years old, Rey was only a baby.

It didn’t matter that his parents shared that same age gap. Ben was convinced the universe was playing a cruel trick on the both of them. Apparently, the whole one way color situation wasn’t enough.

Her high pitched squeal caught him off guard and he almost threw his headphones across the room. He didn’t remember turning on the microphone.

“Oh my god, yes!” She fist pumped in the air. A large grin appeared on her face as she celebrated her success.

Ben frowned as she smiled. Rey was full of youthful excitement and cheer, not anger and resentment. She also had a best friend, Hux definitely didn’t count, and wasn’t held down by any expectations because of her name. No doubt, he would be a disappointment if she ever met him.

Rey was his opposite in every way.

 _What am I doing?_ He asked himself as the snoring besides him stopped, Ben looked over to his left and found Hux curled up in a ball in his chair, which looked hilarious because of his height, staring at him with bleary eyes. Even while he was barely on the brink of consciousness, Hux still managed to insult Ben. “You look better when I can’t really see you.”

Ben took advantage of the man’s blurred vision and made a rude gesture at him. “You were better when you were asleep.”

Hux scrunched his nose at that as his eyes began to close once more. “Jesus Christ, I feel bad for whoever’s your soulmate.”

“Me too.”

The snoring had resumed way before Ben replied. Nobody had heard him.

Time passed slower than he would have liked. It was barely noon, Rey would be heading to work soon and Ben had shut off the camera and microphone a long time ago, she hadn’t been doing anything interesting anyways.

It hadn’t been a secret that being a Handler was not the most exciting job within the FBI, but it was a hundred times worse when your assigned Individual wasn’t doing anything. The agents who did this job day in and day out deserved a ton of respect, they were able to keep their sanity.

With nothing else to do, Ben leaned back in his chair, swiveling it to the left and right, as he ate a bag of chips from the vending machine and took occasional sips from the bottle of water he’d gotten as well. Apparently, Handlers had to eat at their desks instead of the cafeteria so they didn’t miss anything important. This job was far more terrible than anything Ben had endured during his time as a field agent, and that was saying something.

Two o’clock came and went, Ben was trying to entertain himself by throwing small pieces of papers at Hux’s sleeping figure but lost interest when there was no reaction. He sighed, thinking that maybe he could follow in his egotistical partner’s footsteps and fall asleep too. There were only a few hours left of work.

Relaxing against his headrest, Ben closed his eyes. Only to snap them open a few seconds later when a ping came from his computer. He shot up in a flash and began to investigate what had caused the notification to go off. _Finally._

Ben quickly began to type, the keys clicked loudly as his fingers flew over them. This was the most exciting thing to happen in hours, there was no way he was going to miss it just because he wasn’t paying attention. A window appeared, asking for permission to carry out the action. Ben never hit enter so fast.

It was just a simple phone call with Finn, but he didn't complain. It was better than nothing.

“Finn!” Rey sounded absolutely ecstatic. “Guess what!”

A male voice answered back. “What?”

“Guess!” Ben could tell she was smiling as she spoke.

“You got good grades?” Finn seemed bit confused. “Rey, that’s not a surprise. You always get good grades. I don’t understand why you freak out every time.”

“No, not that!” She paused. “Well, yeah. I did get good grades, but this isn’t that.”

“Then what is it?” There was a shuffling sound like Finn had moved the phone from one ear to the other. “You know, I only have a couple minutes left for my lunch break.”

There was a pause.

“Wait, aren’t you working at Jakku today? I thought Plutt never let you use your phone.”

“Actually.” Rey drew out the syllable. “I quit Jakku.”

Finn was absolutely dumbstruck now. “What?”

“I also quit the diner.”

“WHAT?”

Ben also asked himself that question. What was she doing? He had checked how much their rent cost yesterday while he was searching for a picture of her. If Rey was unemployed then there was no way Finn, with his job as a mall security officer, would be able to pay it on his own. A brief, ridiculous thought flew though his head that maybe she was dying and getting her affairs in order.

“Rey, are you feeling okay right now? Are you, like, having a midlife crisis at nineteen?”

“No!” It was if Finn’s words had offended her. “I got a new job, one that pays way more than Jakku and the diner combined. I’m actually headed there right now for a tour.”

“Where?”

As he continued to listen, Ben took a drink from the water bottle he had gotten earlier. His eyebrows furrowed. Why did it feel like there was something he was forgetting?

“The Millennium Falcon!”

Ben choked on his water as he heard the name of his father’s mechanics shop, a coughing fit ensued. _What the fuck?_ When Han had offered to give her a job, Ben didn’t think he’d do it the very next day.

“That’s great, Rey!” Finn truly sounded happy for her. “Oops, I gotta get back to work. I can feel Phasma burning a hole in the back of my head with her eyes.”

“Don’t worry about it.” In the background there was an announcement informing the passengers what stop was next. Ben recognized the name as one that was about two stops away from his father’s shop. “I’m almost there anyways. I think in about ten minutes or so. Probably twenty if the traffic is too bad. Talk to you later, bye!”

Finn quickly said his goodbyes as well.

The call was cut, and Ben felt like he was having an out of body experience. He couldn’t believe what had just heard. It had to be some sort of auditory hallucination, he did only get about three hours of sleep last night.

The phone on his desk, the one next to his red stapler, began to ring, and Ben shifted his eyes from the blank computer screen to it. A phone call was not something he wanted to deal with right now. It continued to ring, the sound beginning to annoy him. By the fourth ring, anger had bubbled up inside of him. He picked it up violently, clenching it in his hand, and snarled at whoever had called. “What? What is it?”

 “A-agent Ren?” The person on the other end was afraid, Ben could tell.

If Ben wasn’t so pissed off, he would have found their reaction amusing, just like with the security guard from this morning. “What do you want?”

Ben hadn’t been this furious in a long time. He was even more furious at the fact that he was furious, he had been so good at controlling his emotions lately. Sure, he was angry when Snoke had assigned him to this division, but he had accepted the punishment and his anger dissipated soon afterwards.

The question was answered with a squeaky voice. “There’s a call for you!”

“No shit.” The fact that they weren’t getting to the point fast enough was making Ben more aggravated, if that was even possible. “Who is it?”

“Your father.”

Ben had been trying to do those breathing exercises his therapist during high school had told him about. He still felt mad, but now he was calm enough to take the call. “Put him through and transfer the call to my personal cell. I’ll take it outside.”

The request probably made the operator break a bunch of rules, but it was done anyways. Most likely because he was Kylo Ren, a monster, terrifying in every single way.

By some miracle, he managed to exit the building and find an empty alleyway to hide in, all before the ringing stopped. How long was his voice mail message again? He remembered making it very long to annoy people.

Once he was sure he hadn’t been followed, and although his mood hadn''t changed, Ben answered his father’s call.

“Hey, Ben.” His father’s voice came from the other line, clearly nervous. “Or do I have to call you Kylo when you’re at work?”

It was obvious that Han was trying to avoid the subject by cracking a joke, trying to avoid his son’s explosive temper. And suddenly, Ben felt guilty. He was frightening his father, and if he continued to do so then all the progress they made trying to repair their broken family would disappear. Ben’s anger faded away.

“Dad, why?” Now he just sounded tired.

Han’s reply wasn’t an excuse for his actions, they were truly justified. “Ben, we couldn’t just do nothing.”

“I know.” Ben leaned against the wall and with his free hand, Ben rubbed his temples in order to avoid a headache.

“You okay, kid?”

Ben was quiet as if he was trying to find the right words to say. But he already knew what they were, he had known them for a while, and his voice cracked for the first in fifteen years. “I’m not ready.”

He’d been alone for his entire life. He felt it even now. It was all he knew. He didn’t know what to do if that were to change.

He was afraid.

“I know this wasn’t what you wanted, but you need to understand that’s she’s been waiting for you her entire life. A soulmate is a person’s other half. They’re supposed to balance each other out.” Ben held his phone in his hand and wondered when his father got so good at giving advice. He about to say something back when he heard the familiar sound of the bell above the door to the shop’s reception area. “Hold on. Someone just came in.”

He waited, hearing his father’s voice in the distance. “Sorry, I was just on the phone with my son.” Unlike Han’s loud voice, the other person’s was too quiet to hear. Han laughed. “You didn’t know? Well, I’ve had the kid for almost thirty years.” This must be one of his father’s regular customers if he was joking around like that. “Do you wanna say 'hi' to him? He’s always been busy with work, but I hope he’s going to be coming around more often.” Ben didn’t know what Han meant by that. “Here, let me get the phone.”

There wasn’t any time to ask any questions as Han passed the phone. Why was this particular customer special enough that Han sounded proud to tell them he had a son when he clearly didn’t talk about it much?

Though he couldn’t understand anything Han was getting at, he prepared to be civil anyways. He didn’t want to insult any of his father’s customers and lose business because he was rude and socially inept. And although he hadn’t been prepared to hear a feminine voice on the other line, he answered anyways.

 

“Hi, I’m Rey.”

 

“I’m Ben.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long! My microwave actually caught fire on Wednesday and I had to put it out by myself because I live alone. So I've been kind of sad. My dorm adviser didn't even come until one hour later. 
> 
> Thank you everyone for the kind comments! I hope you understand why I couldn't answer them this week.
> 
> My sister's list of favorite characters now includes Hux.
> 
> Also, would anyone be interested in Rey chapters? I really enjoy writing Ben, but maybe some variety would be good too?


	4. Day Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for caring about me and my microwave. I'm fine now, but microwave is not.
> 
> I realized this is going faster than I expected, but don't worry I have a plan.
> 
> Sleepy Ben makes bad decisions.

At one point in his life, nighttime had been his favorite part of the day. It was when his parents would finally come home, Leia from the office or Han after a long haul, it would rarely be the both of them. They’d be exhausted, maybe even a little short-tempered with one another, but they were there with him and that’s all that mattered.

Ben remembers looking out his window as a child, awake long past his bedtime, and waiting for any signs that someone was approaching. And when the bright lights from parents’ cars cut through the darkness, he would be so happy. Then as they pulled up into the driveway, he would rush back into his bed, hastily pulling the covers over himself, and pretend to be asleep. If he was lucky then either Han or Leia would peek into his room to check on him, and sometimes they would even come in to give him a kiss on the cheek. That was the best part.  

Unbeknownst to him, this was a habit he carried into adolescence. He’d be sitting at his desk, studying into the late hours of the night, pathetically trying to be a model student so that his parents would have no choice but to recognize his achievements and him as well. But they missed most award ceremonies, sometimes forgot to look at his report cards, and bickered at every parent-teacher conference. So Ben became angry and _that_ wasn’t hard to miss. There were violent outbursts, unsuspecting and often terrifying to whoever stood witness. His parents were worried so they had him medicated in order to regulate his emotions and help him sleep better, but it never really worked. It’d be two or three o’clock in the morning and he’d still be sitting at that same desk by that same window, unconsciously looking outside from time to time. And when he saw lights, he would turn off his lamp and go to bed. For a long time, Ben told himself it was because he didn’t want to be nagged at for staying up too long, but really, it was because he was satisfied with just a glimpse.  

By the time university and the academy rolled around, and after Ben had moved out, the window didn’t even matter anymore. There was no reason to ever look out of it again.

He had liked the window, but grew to hate it. He had liked nighttime, but he recently grew to hate that too.

Ben never really had an opinion on ceilings before, but he definitely hated his now.

So many hours were spent in the dark, looking at it as he laid in bed and tried to will himself to sleep. Time moved by slowly, occasionally Ben would turn his head to look at the clock on his nightstand and then back to the ceiling. Hours would pass and he’d look at the clock again, just to see that, in reality, it had only been a few minutes.

Falling asleep was hard and staying asleep was even worse. If his eyes managed to flutter shut then he was subjected to dreams. It was always the same one, the one that made him jolt up in bed gasping for air. His shirt would be uncomfortably clinging to his body with sweat, and while it’d probably be easier to go without one, Ben didn’t do that anymore. He had scars all over, one on his upper arm, another one on his leg, the bullet wound, and a rather large one on his abdomen, but there was only one that truly bothered him to the point he wanted to hide it. The scar on his face started at his brow and ran down his neck before finally ending near his collarbone. The fact that it marred his face was bad enough, he didn’t want to see the rest of it. Especially since it was in his singular dream every night. Not a dream, but a nightmare.

No, not a nightmare, but a memory.

Ben hated not being able to sleep, hated his stupid ceiling, hated his ugly scar, and although he didn’t even know why he had thought about it for the first time in years, he despised that damn window in his bedroom at home.

It was four o’clock in the morning when Ben finally came to the conclusion that there would be no sleep tonight and decided to take a shower so he could go to work. Thanks to Hux practically dying due to lack of sleep yesterday, Ben now knew that Handlers had very flexible hours. Flexible to the point where you could choose to come in whenever you wanted as long as you completed your necessary hours and made arrangement for your Individual before you left. Mitaka also sent him an email that said since Handlers often had long hours and their existence wasn’t even meant to be general knowledge, they could wear whatever they wanted.

He couldn’t complain about that, even though his wardrobe was limited in color, actually it only had one, which was black. And he had read on the internet that it wasn’t considered a color anyways. There was something about it being the absence of color? Ben didn’t really understand that part.

As he got dressed Ben thought about what he was going to do at work this early in the morning. Hux wasn’t going to be around to annoy until nine and Ben hadn’t spoken to anyone else except Mitaka and Snoke, nobody else wanted to get chummy with Kylo Ren. Maybe he could start writing his weekly report, it wasn’t due till later in the day but it didn’t hurt to get a head start on it. Apparently, weekly reports were due every Friday for some reason and his was going to be really short considering this was only his third day monitoring Rey.

The phone call seemed unreal, like it never happened. It should have never happened, but his father seemed determined to make it so. Han had probably been planning everything from the moment he offered to give her a job. Ben wasn’t able to think clearly for the rest of the day. It was short and simple, but it was everything he could have imagined.

_“Hi, I’m Rey.”_

And he had responded, throwing out the most important rule in the book, and gave her his name in return. Ben couldn’t deny that it felt nice to hear her voice directed at him and not somebody else through some headphones. It was cheerful and polite, probably to make a good impression on her new boss and his son.

Ben wanted to say more, anything just so he could hear her talk again, but he didn’t know what. In fact, he was quiet for so long that she told his dad that the phone call might’ve cut out. Han laughed, taking the phone from her and saying that Ben’s workplace had shitty cell reception. His father, fully aware that Ben was still on the line, said to call him tomorrow whenever Ben finished work and hung up straight afterwards.

There was barely anyone on the subway, and those who were gave him side-glances before moving to seats far away from him. Ben figured he must have looked like some modern day grim reaper with his black pants, shirt, jacket and boots. Not to mention the scar on his face that made Ben look far more menacing than he actually was. There were also the sunglasses, which he had almost forgotten. It rarely bothered him when people stared at him, but Ben couldn’t deny that sometimes he wished things were different. Kylo Ren was supposed to be the frightening one, not Ben Solo.

Some of the night Handlers seemed very surprised to see someone walk in this early, especially Agent Ren. It looked like most people preferred to take their work home because the office was nearly empty.

Ben took off his backpack before he sat at his desk, it had one strap because he refused to look like some schoolboy going to class and surprisingly it wasn’t black. It was grey. He was just glad he was finally able to leave stupid briefcase at home, it made him feel old—not that he was proposedly trying to make himself look younger or anything. Besides, he could actually carry a proper lunch now. No more vending machine for him.

Typing the report was boring and tedious, but at least it gave him something to do until Rey woke up and he didn’t know when that would be because her sleeping schedule had most likely changed. When Ben had wrote as much as he could for now, it had only been about forty-five minutes. Running his fingers through his hair, he tried to think of some activity he could do for the next couple of hours and then a random idea came to mind.

He downloaded the first book in the _Rogue One_ series onto his phone.

When Rey and Finn were arguing it about it the other day, Ben couldn’t understand their enthusiasm about some young adult novel, but now he did. The story took place “A long time ago. In a galaxy far, far away” and starred Jyn Erso, a twenty-one year old woman whose father was kidnapped so that he could build an extremely dangerous weapon that was capable of destroying planets, and over the course of her life Jyn was a petty thief with a long list of other crimes that eventually landed her in a high security prison. The male lead was Captain Cassian Andor, twenty-six and a spy for the Rebel cause. As an Intelligence Officer, he was an excellent sharpshooter and a child solider.

Even though Ben knew a crucial piece of information because of the movie trailer, why they revealed an important detail was ridiculous, he still couldn’t discern the relationship between Jyn and Cassian. They were reluctant partners and yet there was this strange romantic tension between them and it seemed as if neither of them wanted to make a move because they were worried that it wouldn’t go well. It was infuriating.

Ben was three-quarters of the way through the book when his computer made a sound. He looked up confused. It was only six in the morning, why would Rey be up when his father’s shop didn’t open until nine? And why would she be making a phone call to Finn when they lived together and was probably sleeping?

Setting aside the novel for now, Ben got to work.

“Hey, Finn.” Rey sounded like she was ready to go back to sleep at any moment.

“What’s up, Rey?”

“I know Phasma made you work the night shift, so I wanted to let you know that I’ll probably be gone when you get back.” She yawned. “And I know you’re going to crash as soon as you get here so I’ll try to be extra quiet after work. I don’t want to wake you up.”

“Okay, thanks.” There was an echo of his footsteps, like Finn was walking through a large and empty building. It was an easy guess that Finn was inside the mall where he worked as security. “But Rey, why are you up this early? I thought you didn’t have to leave until around eight. Work starts at nine, right?”

There was a pause.

“I’m nervous.” Rey finally admitted and Ben felt sympathy for her. “The closest I’ve been to working on cars was tinkering with the broken down ones at Jakku and that one class at the community college.”

“I’m sure you’ll do fine. Besides, wasn’t it your boss who sought you out in the first place?

“Yeah.”

“Then stop worrying.”

The called ended soon afterwards and Ben didn’t know what to do. He could call his father and tell him to go easy on Rey since it was her first day and she wasn’t entirely confident. Something told him that she wouldn’t like that in the slightest. That she could hold her own.

He wanted to comfort her in the way Finn had done. To give her words of encouragement and make her feel better, but Ben knew better than to think that could ever happen. The call yesterday would be the first and last time they would ever speak to one another. It was the best thing for the both of them.

But he was conflicted. 

How could this be good for either of them? He longed to hear her voice again and not through a microphone or a phone call. There was a desire to be near her. Those three words from yesterday made him feel something he never had before, like a missing part of him was suddenly found. If their eyes were to meet then would she feel the same?

Would it be worth it to sacrifice everything he’s ever worked for, the thing he had dedicated his entire life for, just for a chance to finally feel like he wasn’t alone?

The answer in his head fought with the answer in his heart. Eventually one would win, and Ben hoped that it would be—

He was startled when a hand slammed down onto the desk next to him, causing him to jump in his chair.

“I see through your lies, Kylo Ren,” Hux said standing over him.

Ben steeled himself, ready for whatever ridiculous thing Hux was about to spout from his mouth. “What are you talking about? It’s six a.m. why are you even here?” _Why was I thinking like a love-struck fool?_

That was definitely not like him at all. Something else was at work here.

His partner smirked, ignoring Ben’s second question, but answering the first. “The first day we were here and you had your little freak out session, you said that you were leaving because your shoulder was hurting. But yesterday, you said you had to leave early because you forgot about your laser eye surgery appointment.” Hux’s eyes narrowed. “Now, why did you say two different things?”

“Did I really?” Ben asked, trying to sound as oblivious as possible. _Oh shit, did I really?_ This is why he rarely lied, it never went well.

“Take off your glasses.” It was a demand, not a request, and if Hux thought he could order Ben around then he was definitely an egotistic imbecile.

“This is a waste of time.” Ben was annoyed now, which really wasn’t surprising, it wasn’t like there was any other emotion he had regarding Hux lately. “I’m not taking off my glasses. It would ruin my eyesight forever.”

“Fine.” Hux went to go sit in his chair. There was silence for a moment, the only sound radiating throughout the office was the sounds of keyboards typing, and then Hux quickly turned in his chair. “But really, which one is the truth?”

Ben sighed. “And this is why I’m in charge of all the interrogations.” If he was going to have to commit to this ruse, then he would have to deal with anything that could contradict his story. Besides, one of those excuses actually had _some_ truth to it. “Both. Both are the truth. My shoulder is still a little sore and I honestly forgot about my appointment. I was just so mad at Snoke that it slipped my mind.”

“I can’t believe you wanted to go back into the field with a bum shoulder. You’re psychotic.” Hux’s eyes narrowed. “How did you pass your physical then?”

“I tricked them.” When it came to his job, Ben had no problem with being dishonest. He had fought through every pang of pain, concealed every grimace, pushed his shoulder to the limit so that the doctor would think he had recovered enough to go home from the hospital with just a sling and some painkillers. Honestly, his parents inviting themselves into his home was probably the worst part of it, at least in the beginning. When his shoulder had healed enough on its own he was able to get that paper signed by the FBI’s physical therapist saying he was fit for duty. But that didn’t mean it still wasn’t sore, even after all these months.

“You’re even crazier than I thought.” But Ben barely heard that because he was somewhat distracted by Hux’s bright orange hair, it still didn’t make sense to him how that color occurred naturally. Apparently, it was a genetic anomaly. “I still can’t believe you passed your mental examination either. Wait, did you trick them too?”

“Maybe.”

That one was a little more difficult to pull off. The therapist seem so intent on proving that Ben wasn’t in a good enough state of mind to return to field duty. They brought up his impulsive actions, his tendency to anger and behavior as Kylo Ren. Most likely to try and diagnose him with some sort of personality disorder. But Ben kept a straight face, said all the right things, didn’t mention lack of sleep and exited with another signature on his permission slip.

Hux slumped back in his seat. “I should report you.”

“But you won’t.” Ben knew Hux.

 “No, I won’t.” He looked around the office, eyeing the small amount about of coworkers who were there so early in the morning. “Nobody else here can keep up with me. If you got suspended then they’d probably pair me up with some Neanderthal that doesn’t know right from left. Like it or not, we’re stuck together.”

 “Wow.” Ben was genuinely taken aback. “That might be the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me—it’s kind of gross.”

“Shut up. I still think you’re a pile of shit.” Then Hux turned on his computer. “We should get some work done before we actually start thinking we’re friends.”

“Agreed.”

In the past couple of days, Ben had discovered that sometimes there were long intervals of time where Rey didn’t use her phone or computer, which meant he didn’t have anything to do. Although, the fact that he was getting paid for sitting around was a little nice.

He was almost done with the first _Rogue One_ novel when Hux called his name. “Ren, come here. You have to see this.”

Ben moved his chair closer to Hux’s computer. “See what? I was busy.” Then he looked at the screen.

Poe Dameron had finally gotten home after flying across the Atlantic for days, which meant that Hux finally had access to more than just audio. But the camera was not focused on Dameron, it was pointed at a very extremely happy white and yellowish brown corgi. It was jumping up and down until Poe finally crouched down to ruffle the dog’s hair, resulting in his face being licked a thousand times.

“Hey, buddy!” He seemed equally excited to see the dog. If Ben remembered correctly, Hux had said the dog’s name was Beebee. “I’m sorry I couldn’t take you this time. You know, Snap is allergic. But next time I’m flying with Jessika and she loves you.”

“Snap and Jessika served with him in the Navy.” Hux explained. Ben wondered how three Navy Pilots who knew each other all ended up flying for commercial airlines. “I can see now why he’s so devoted to the dog, it’s obviously obsessed with him.”

“You just think it’s cute. That’s why you wanted me to see it.” Ben said knowingly. There was no other reason Hux would ever tell him to look at his computer, even if it exploded into flames.

Hux scoffed. “Pets are too messy. I never want one.”  

“You keep telling yourself that.” Ben rolled his chair back to his desk and away from Hux. Rey still hadn’t done much except check her bank account, her rent was due soon. He frowned at how little she received from her last jobs, and with the amount of money her rent and classes cost,  it was no wonder she had to work two of them. 

Ben was busy calculating how much Rey would earn at the Millennium Falcon, it was definitely going to help her situation, when he thought of something. Without even moving his eyes away from his computer screen, Ben asked Hux. “Aren’t pilots required to see color? You never mentioned anything about Dameron having a soulmate.”

“She died.

He didn’t really know how to reply to that. Having a soulmate wasn’t something that mattered to Ben until about three days ago, and despite his internet searches, he still wasn’t well versed on the subject. The idea of your soulmate dying never occurred to him, but logically, it was bound to happen.

“How?”

“They were in the Navy together. For some reason, they weren’t married yet.” Hux’s voice was void of emotion, as if the topic bored him. “She got assigned to a mission, her fighter got shot down and exploded once it hit the ground. She died instantly. Apparently, Dameron was so devastated that he spiraled out of control and was discharged.”

“What was her name?” Ben didn’t know why he was so curious.

“I don’t see why that matters, she’s already dead.”

“Asshole.”

“Tallie.”

It was eight o'clock and Rey had already left for work, but Ben’s thoughts were elsewhere. He had dated in college, but none of those relationships lasted long. They either felt wrong or his girlfriend would find her soulmate and leave him. Would Dameron be able to date someone after losing his soulmate? How would it feel?

Ben wondered if Rey had had any relationships before, he didn’t know anything about her life before she became an American citizen. What would happen if she were to date someone now? The idea of that made his skin crawl.

Time passed and Rey hadn’t use her phone as much as Ben would have liked. It made him look like he wasn’t doing his job which would probably hurt his chances of returning to field work. Other Handlers were typing away meanwhile Ben was still sitting at his desk doing nothing. Part of him worried what Snoke would think if he happened to look outside the window in his office. 

He tried to make himself look busy by reading the rest of the _Rogue One_ book, and then he downloaded the second one. How dare the author end it on a cliffhanger.

Ben yawned around four o’clock in the afternoon.

“Did you sleep last night?” The question came from his left. Hux wasn’t looking at him when he asked, his eyes were focused on his screen.

“Why does it sound like you care?”

“I don’t,” Hux answered immediately. “It’s just, these chairs aren’t the best thing to sleep in.”

“You snore, you know?”

“Shut up.”

Ben began packing up his stuff after finishing his report and sending it to Mitaka. Rey was hard at work and was probably too engrossed in that to even use her phone. She did seem extremely excited yesterday when she told Finn she got a job offer at the Millennium Falcon.

He felt irritated that his father was able to spend more time with Rey than Ben could ever do. Most likely, they were bonding over their shared interests. Han could be grooming her to become his daughter-in-law, that thought terrified Ben, and then his father would finally have the child he wanted, one who loved fixing cars as much as he did.

When Ben finally returned to his empty apartment, he didn’t even turn on the light. Instead, he discarded his backpack and plopped down onto the couch where he rested his head against the back cushion. His eyelids felt heavy, maybe he was actually going to get some sleep tonight. He took his shoes off and just threw them onto the floor, not even caring about where they landed. The sunglasses came off too, but those were just placed onto the coffee table along with his phones. 

The bed felt too far away so he decided to just sleep on the couch. It didn’t matter that his legs hung off the edge of the couch because of his height, Ben was just glad he wasn’t sitting at a desk anymore. Even though their chairs at work had support, his back still ached after the long hours he spent in it. Maybe his age was starting to show.

His eyes were about to close shut, one of his arms covering them, when he remembered Han said to call him after he finished work.

Ben groaned loudly. He didn’t bother to move his arm or sit up as he reached for his personal phone. It took a couple of tries before he was finally able to grab it. Reluctantly, he uncovered his eyes and squinted when the phone’s bright light shone right in his face. The call button was green, he never knew that until three days ago. There weren’t many contacts in his address book so it only took a few seconds to scroll down to find his father’s.

Then he hit call.

The phone rung for a long time, and Ben was beginning to think that Han wasn’t going to answer. _He better answer. I  gave up sleep for this._ It continued to ring, the next one would probably be the last before the voicemail message played. Ben didn’t want to leave a message, he wasn’t the one who wanted to talk. He was about to hang up when Han finally picked up.

“Dad, what the hell?” He tried to sound annoyed or angry, but failed. His voice just sounded exhausted.

The other end was quiet for a moment, that is, until someone with a British accent spoke.

“Hello?”

That definitely wasn’t his dad.

Ben was far too tired to tell right from wrong, and there was nothing else he wanted to say more than her name. “Rey?”

“I’m sorry!” She was frantic. “Han’s phone kept ringing, but he’s in the office talking to your mum and then I saw your name on the caller ID so I figured it was something important because Han said you’re always working and nev—”

“Calm down.” He didn’t even realized he was running his fingers through his hair until now. Was she biting her lip like when she was nervously awaiting her grades? “My dad won’t be mad.” _He’d probably be ecstatic._

“Right.” It was amazing how fast she went from being panicked to being calm. “Let me start over. Hi, Ben.”

It was odd, any anxiety he had the first time they spoke was gone. Words were coming easily to him now.  “Hi, Rey. How was your first day at work?”

“It was excellent.” He could tell she was happy. Ben liked that better than when she was nervous. “Your father is very sarcastic, I like it. I think he was impressed with how quickly I was catching on. Actually, I’m not sure. He’s somewhat aloof when it comes to giving compliments.”

“That sounds like my dad. I’m glad it went well.”

“I’m very thankful that Han offered me a job. It was very strange. He just drove up to the Jakku junkyard, told my boss to fuck off, and then came over to me.” He was a bit disappointed that his father didn’t punch her boss. “This is such a great opportunity for me.”

Even though he already knew how horrible her boss was, Ben just wanted to hear her talk more. “Your boss must have been terrible if my dad said that to him.”

“It was pretty bad there.” Rey paused. “I’m sorry. Here I am rambling about my day, I didn’t even ask how your day went. You sound tired.”

“It’s been a long day.” It didn’t help that he’s been awake since yesterday. “But it’s better now that I’m home.” _And talking to you._

“That’s good. You can relax now.”

“You said my mom was there?” 

“Yeah, she’s very nice. She gave me a hug as soon as she saw me. I was afraid I was going to get grease on her.” Rey laughed a little as if she was a bit embarrassed.

Ben’s mouth twitched.

“I guess I should probably go hand over the phone to your dad and mum, now.”

“No. It’s fine. I’ll just call them later.” He didn’t have the energy to deal with his parents right now.

“Oh, okay. Well, it was nice talking with you, Ben. I know you’re busy with work, but I hope we get to meet soon.”

As much as he was enjoying this, Ben was beginning to fall asleep. “I’ll try to figure something out. I got to go now.”

“Try to get some rest.”

The call ended with a click.

He was laying down with his phone still in his hand, ready to just close his eyes, but he started thinking about the regulations. Did he really just break any? Handlers weren’t allowed to seek out or interact with their Individual, but there was nothing in the handbook about what would happen if the they were to coincidentally cross paths. His father’s words echoed in his mind, _“Anyways, rules are meant to be broken.”_

Ben couldn’t break the rules, but he could bend them. The question was, is he actually crazy enough to try?

Maybe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ben does not know that BeeBee's coloring is actually called red and tan.
> 
> I also wanted to explore what happens when a soulmates dies, so I'm sorry I did that to Poe.
> 
> I'm really sorry I didn't get around to answer everyone's comments. I think if I do it here then it adds to the comment count and I feel like that's unfair to other authors. I don't know if it does the same thing when you answer from your inbox.
> 
> Since so many of you wanted it, Rey chapters are now going to be a thing.


	5. Day Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys said you wanted this. 
> 
> Like I said, Rey chapters are now a thing.

Rey had been lying when she told Finn that she was fine with being alone.

Or more so, Rey had been lying to herself.

Until now, she had always been alone. As much as she wished to deny it, her parents abandoned her a long time ago, leaving her at an orphanage. The cruelest part is that they did it when Rey was at an age where she could remember it clearly.

And yet, Rey still held onto the hope that one day they would come back for her, it had kept her going when things were tough, helped her survive. But they never did.

She was never wanted, never knew what it was to be loved. And if she couldn’t find that sense of belonging in England then maybe she could find it somewhere else. There was a book Rey had once read that said destiny would draw soulmates together even if they were halfway across the world. Maybe fate was what drew her to America.

The cost of the airline ticket was most of her life savings, a pitiful amount, and she chose New York City as her destination because of its sheer size. There was a better chance that she would be able to blend in with the large population and avoid Immigration until she got her citizenship, if she ever did.

But Rey did not realize until she exited the airport that there was no place for her to stay. Her funds were severely lacking, and all she had with her was a small duffel bag filled with meager belongings. The chances of being able to stay at a motel or hostel were minuscule at best.

Rey was deep in thought as she passed an alleyway and heard what sounded to be like some sort of scuffle nearby. Looking to her left, she found just that. Two men were ganging up on another man who looked years younger than them, and when one of the thugs threw a punch, hitting the other man in the face and sending him tumbling to the ground, Rey stepped in. There was a pipe leading against the wall of the alleyway and without any hesitation, she struck both men upside the head.

They went down immediately, but thankfully they were still breathing. It probably wouldn’t be good if she killed anyone on her first day in a new country.

The man she had saved just happened to be Finn.

He said he owed her a debt, to which Rey replied there was no need and that she was glad he was alright. Finn didn’t comment on her accent, she was worried some people might, but noticed her luggage. Assuming Rey was a tourist, he told her that he would happily escort her to wherever she was staying.  

“I don’t have anywhere to go.”

“Then you can stay with me. I need a roommate anyways.”

And the rest was history.

Rey had found love with Finn, not romantic in any sense, but it was the type of love that came with friendship. Eventually, she would come to think of him as family, which was what she had always wanted, but there was a feeling inside her that yearned for something more.

She wanted someone who could understand her loneliness, sympathize with her. That person didn’t have to be exactly like her, she wanted someone to fill the missing parts of her, someone who completed her.

And Rey thought maybe that person would be her soulmate.

Every day she hoped that she would meet that person on the street, in the subway or even in some random fast food restaurant. Rey felt ridiculous pining for some random stranger. But a year and a half passed by in an instant, and she figured that maybe there wasn’t anybody like that out there for her. It hurt more than she liked to admit, but she couldn’t let someone she’s never met dictate everything. No, she needed to live her life to the fullest.

It was another day of cold pizza for breakfast. Rent had taken most of both Rey and Finn’s paychecks, leaving them with very little each. If they pooled their money together, then maybe they could buy enough instant ramen to last them until one of them got their next paycheck.

Back in the beginning, Rey watched Finn struggle to make enough money to pay for rent and feed both of them as the same time. So she found two jobs that didn’t question her citizenship. She hated both of them, but if it helped Finn out then she would endure the creepy stares her boss always sent her way.

Finn had surprised her one day, telling her that he had been secretly putting away a little money each pay period so that she could take classes at the community college. At first, Rey didn’t know what she wanted to study, but remembered how she had always liked tinkering with things. Mechanical Engineering sounded like a good choice. There was also an elective for car mechanics as well, Rey figured she might as well try it. And she loved working on cars more than she expected.

So when Han Solo strolled up into the Jakku Junkyard and offered her a job at his mechanic’s shop, one that paid so well that she and Finn would be able to relax a bit after her first paycheck, Rey accepted it on the spot.

The Millennium Falcon was known as one of the best mechanic’s shops in the area even though it wasn’t very large, fitting only about three or four cars in the garage at a time. Its owner, Han Solo, was famous among car enthusiasts for his exceptional skill. Apparently he had come out of nowhere, but Rey remembers hearing that he had started out as a UPS driver or a trucker. It was something that involved delivery.

Finn jumped over the back of the couch to sit next to her, looking refreshed after his eighteen hour shift which Rey was pretty sure was illegal, with a slice of pizza of his own. “We should really get the microwave fixed if we’re going to survive for the next couple weeks on ramen.”

“We could just use boiled water,” Rey suggested, looking at the official _Rogue One_ Twitter page on her phone. “Or I could fix it.”

“No.” Finn answered immediately. “Remember when you tried to fix the toaster?”

“That was not my fault. That thing was evil from the moment we bought it.”

“Those flames were really big, Rey.”

She huffed. “Well, I’ve gotten better at fixing things.”

When the last of his pizza was finished, Finn stared her straight in the eye. “Maybe you shouldn’t work on cars. They might blow up.”

“Finn! That’s not funny!” A throw pillow hit him in his laughing face. “I wish Phasma would call right now and say you have to go to work on your day off.”

Finn gasped, his eyes widening in fear. “Don’t even joke about that! It might actually happen now!”

Now it was her turn to laugh. One of his worst nightmares was his boss. Finn constantly said that she hated him, that he could see the murderous intent in her eyes. One theory Finn had was that Phasma didn’t like the fact he probably only chose to be a security guard at the mall because he had been denied from the police academy. Well, it _was_ true, but that didn’t mean his boss had any right to treat him as horribly as she did.

He tossed the pillow back at her, and Rey caught it easily. After checking something his phone, Finn asked, “By the way, how was your first day at work? I haven’t been able to ask since, you know, I went into hibernation.”

“It went great,” Rey told him. “Everyone was so nice. There’s a girl named Kaydel, who works in the front. Apparently, she manages inventory and adds up the profits. She was the assistant of Han’s wife when she still practiced law, and decided to help out at Han’s business when Leia retired.”

Finn snorted, grabbing her phone and began to toy around with it. “Sounds like she does all the jobs Han doesn’t want to do.”

“Probably.” Rey shrugged her shoulders. Han only wanted to work on cars, and management responsibilities would get in the way of that. “There’s another mechanic besides Han named Rose. She’s really nice and kind of bubbly. It’s sad, she was really close to her sister, Paige. Rose said she was in the Navy and was on a mission when her fighter got shot down and both Paige and her partner died.”

“That’s…a really personal thing to tell a stranger.” Finn tossed Rey’s phone back.

“I think she’s just sad about it. It’s almost the anniversary of Paige’s death.” She unlocked her cell phone to see what he had done, sometimes she regretted that they agreed to share their passwords with one another. “ _Really?_ ” The background was now an unflattering picture of her sleeping on the couch with her mouth opened, there was even a little bit of drool. “When did you take this? How have I not notice this in my camera roll before?”

“Because I just sent it from my phone.”

“You’re horrible,” Rey said jokingly as she tried to find a better image for her background, but gave up and decided to leave the horrifying image of her untouched.

Finn let out a small laugh. “Does anyone else work at the shop?”

“Nope.” It was a _really_ small garage. “It was just Han, Rose, and Kaydel before I got there. The three of them must have been so busy.”

“That sounds horrible. How have they not died yet?” There was blanket on the floor, Finn picked it up and wrapped it around him, making him look like a turtle.

Rey stomach growled, she was still hungry, there really wasn’t more to eat. All they had was ketchup in the fridge and sad canned food in the cabinets. Lunch, what was she going to eat for lunch? Did she have enough coins to buy something from the vending machine in the lobby at the shop? She could search for some under the sofa cushions before she left, just in case.

“I don’t know, but Han’s wife came by around closing time to talk to him about something. She gave me a hug as soon as she saw me. That was pretty strange.” Rey liked hugs, but that had caught her off guard completely, especially since her shirt had been covered in grease and Leia had still hugged her anyways. “They were in his office for a while, but I had to wait because Han said he wanted to tell me something before I left.”

“Really? That sucks.” Finn settled into the couch, completely relaxed. Probably because he didn’t have to see Phasma today. “You must have been bored.”

“Not really. I was on the phone for most of time.” Then she added. “Actually, I was on Han’s phone for most of the time.”

“Rey Niima.” Finn started, sitting up and trying to sound like a mother scolding her child. “Tell me you didn’t sneak through your boss’s phone on your very first day.” The way he worded it made it sound like it was something that was okay to do later on in your career.

“I didn’t look though his phone!” She exclaimed and gave him in his turtle-form a small shove. “I just answered it.”

“And why would you do that?” He readjusted the blanket so that he was no longer encased in it completely, it looked like some sort of shawl now. Then, sizing up the couch, he muttered. “I might sleep here later.”

“Because it wouldn’t stop ringing and the caller ID said it was his son.” Rey shrugged. “I talked to him the day before so I figured it’d be okay.” That is, if just greeting each other counted as talking, but Han did say that his son was going to be coming around more often so it couldn’t hurt to talk to him a little.

“So, does Solo Junior look just like his dad?” He pointed a finger at her. “Who, I may add, I only know how he looks like because you kept shoving that magazine in my face earlier. Your boss looked like he rather die than get his picture taken.”

“Han really did, didn’t he?” Han told her he didn’t even care about the article that was written, it was only three paragraphs after all. “Also, his name is not ‘Solo Junior’, it’s Ben. And I don’t know what he looks like because I haven’t met him in person.”

“Ben, huh?” Finn dropped the frayed corner of the blanket he was playing with, then grinned and wiggled his eyebrows at her. “Did you like his voice then?”

She slapped his knee which only resulted in Finn chuckling.

Has she even heard Ben talk enough to form an opinion of it? Thinking back to their conversation, Rey realized that while she spoke at length, all of his replies had been short sentences. It was probably because Ben was tired, but she still felt sorry that she talked his ear off.

_“I’ll try to figure something out.”_

There wasn’t really any other word she could think of to describe it. “It was nice.”

“You should find out what he looks like. You never know, he could be your soul—” Finn stopped talking before he had finished his sentence.

There was the sound of a familiar engine coming from outside. Both roommates looked towards the window, then at each other, and then back at window.

Rey’s eyes widened. “Oh my god, he’s finally back.”

They immediately jumped off the couch and scrambled to look out the window where a certain curly haired guy was currently getting out of his car. Finn shook his head. “I can’t believe he lives in this shithole. He deserves better.”

“But we’re so lucky he does.” She put a hand on Finn’s shoulder, a huge smile on her face. “And he lives down the hall too!”

Both of the man’s hands were occupied with luggage as he walked towards the building. “Rey, quick. We have to get to the door.”

Cracking the front door opened just enough to be able to peek out it, Rey and Finn watched as their neighbor struggled getting up the stairs with both a suitcase and a carrying bag. “He’s so cute,” Rey whispered and Finn nodded eagerly,

The man walked by their door and stopped suddenly. With a small sigh, he said, “I can see you two, you know?”

Feeling somewhat ashamed, the two of them completely opened the door bashfully.

“Hey, Poe.” Rey gave him a little wave.

Finn nodded. “Yeah, good to see you again.”

The hallway was uncomfortably silent as Poe looked at them with skeptical eyes.

“Okay, I know why you’re here.” He bent down to set the smaller bag he was carrying on the floor. “By the way, Finn, your clothes don’t match. Again.”

“Aw man.” Finn said as he looked at his sleeves. “I tried to label them after you told me which ones were which like you said to, but when you left for your flight I dropped them and got them all messed up.” 

But everything was forgotten when Poe opened the bag and a certain someone walked out.

“Beebee!” Rey and Finn exclaimed together, completely ignoring Poe as they crouched to pet the small corgi.

Finn looked up at Poe. “Next time, can he just stay with us?”

“No way,” Poe said, looking at their door with furrowed brows. “Your place is a fire hazard.”

As Beebee licked her hand, an alarm on Rey’s phone went off and she stood up quickly. “I got to get to work. I’m going to be late.” She ran back into the apartment and haphazardly stuffed her wallet and keys into her backpack. As she ran back into the hallway and towards the stairs, she waved back at them. “Bye Beebee, I’ll see you later.”

Poe was slightly offended. “What about me?”

“You aren’t Beebee.”

Neither she or Finn owned cars, and Rey always felt bad asking Poe because it cut into his short bonding time with Beebee, so public transportation was the way to go. Morning commutes were always a nightmare, luckily she could drown out the noise by listening to music with her faulty earbuds and passed the time by browsing Reddit on her phone for something interesting or funny. Rey found some videos and memes she liked and saved them for later so that she could show Finn. Instagram was always entertaining too, plus she was thinking of maybe going on her Tumblr more since there was going to be a ton of _Rogue One_ fanart and gifs after the movie comes out.

Speaking of Finn, he was currently blowing up her Snapchat with various pictures of Beebee. _Lucky bastard._

Her stop was only a block or two away from the Millennium Falcon, for which Rey was extremely grateful. She greeted Kaydel on her way to the locker room to change into her work uniform. When she was finished, Rey went to the garage where Han and Rose were already opening the doors. But Rey’s eyes weren’t focused on them or even on the cars she was going to working on today, but on a long-haired wiener dog, one that hadn’t been there yesterday or the day before, laying on a dog bed next to the door she had just came out of.

“That’s Chewie.” Han walked up to her when he noticed her surprise. “Chewie III, actually. He doesn’t move as much as he used to, but he likes watching us work.”

“Will he be okay with the fumes?”

“He’ll be fine.” Han waved away her concerns. “Chewie knows to go hang with Kaydel if the air masks come out. Isn’t that right, boy?”

Chewie wagged his tail.

Han grinned. “See? We’re not going to move onto Chewie IV for a long, long time. Now, c’mon. Shop’s opening up soon.”

Rey followed Han to where he was currently lowering a car on one of the lifts, one that he wouldn’t let her get anywhere near yesterday. “Will I actually be working on cars today?” She paused. “Not that I didn’t mind installing windshield wipers and vacuuming yesterday.” Rey still didn’t know how she got grease on her uniform.

“Yup.” Rey was beaming at his answer, excited that she was going to get to put her hands on a vehicle. “Rose is going to teach you how to do smog checks and tire rotations today.”

He pointed to Rose on the other side of the garage, who smiled and waved at them. Rey gave her a little wave back.

“Gotta learn how to do the small stuff first, kid.”

The lift finally touched the ground and Han started marking things off on a clipboard that had been laying nearby. “But I already know how to do those. I did some at my school.”

“Well, you’re going to be doing a whole lot more of them today.” He capped his pen once he was done checking boxes. “Listen, Rey. When I offered Be—you, when I offered you this job, I didn’t know exactly what you learned at your school or at the junkyard. This way, I can get an idea. Plus, the boring stuff like smog checks are routine checks. There’s always someone bringing their car in for those.”

Rey sighed. “Okay, but I have an important question.”

“What?”

“Am I going to be changing oil by Monday?”

Han smirked. “If I’m in a good mood, I might even let you hold a wrench. Now get going.”

Rose greeted her as soon Rey walked over. “Hey, Rey. You ready?”

“Do I have any other choice?”

“Not really.” Rose patted the car next to them. “This car was in a pretty bad wreck, but we fixed her up and all it needs now is the smog check and tire rotation.”

Rose explained how to use the smog machine, which was different than the one at the community college, and the directions on how to rotate the tires were ten times better than Rey’s teacher had given her. She was also more patient. And after the owner picked up their car, Rey had done two more. By then, Rose said that it looked like Rey could handle it on her own and left to go work on a car, one that was nearby in case she needed any help and also because Han said that Rose had to check Rey’s work every time.

Han’s cell phone began to ring when she had just finished with the fifth car, drawing Rey’s attention. He closed the hood of the car he had just finished checking and pulled it out of his pocket, the name on the screen made his eyes go wide for some reason. “Rose?”

Rose slid out from under a car. “Yeah, boss?”

“I need to take this.” The ringing continued. “You’re in charge until I get back and don’t forget to check the car Rey just finished.”

“Got it.”

Chewie got up to follow Han as he left to go to his office, but not before Rey heard him say “Ben? What’s up, kiddo? Aren’t you working?”

Rey watched as Rose inspected the tire rotation on the latest car, making sure that all the tires had been put on properly, and checked the numbers from the smog machine. “Yup. Looks good. I’ll park it in a spot outside and you can let Kaydel know so she can tell the owner that it’s all done.”

She handed over the keys and Rose got into the car, but before she could close the door, Rey asked. “Rose, do you know Han’s son?”

“Ben?” Rose looked in the direction of Han’s office and back to Rey. “Not really, but I met him once. Han brought him in one day after his accident. Said Leia wasn’t around to help that day because she was a guest lecturer at the university, and Han didn’t want to be stuck inside. I think Ben might have still been on pain killers because he just fell asleep on a chair right next to Chewie’s bed like an hour later.”

Rey’s mind focused in on one word. “He was in an accident?” 

“I don’t really know what happened, but it looked pretty bad. His arm was in a sling and half his face was bandaged. Why do you ask?”

“No reason.” Rey answered automatically. “Han just said he might visit from time to time.”

“Oh, I know Han would like that.” Rose smiled. “Okay, I’ll park this baby out front. You tell Kaydel and then you can go on your lunch break. Although, lunchtime might have passed a long time ago. We get busy and then we forget.”

When Rey saw that the breakroom was stocked with some food, she let out a huge sigh of relief. That meant she didn’t have to spend her last dollar on the vending machine and it could go to the instant ramen fund. It occurred to her to ask Kaydel if she could take one or two things home for Finn. 

She was halfway through a granola bar when she thought of what Rose had told her. Rey didn’t know why she was so curious about someone she’s only spoken to twice, and only one of those times was an actual conversation. Maybe it was because the only guys who weren’t her boss that she really talked to were Finn and Poe or probably just the excitement of meeting somebody new, but there was something inside of her that wanted to talk to him again. Except she didn’t know if she would get the chance to talk to him again or ever actually meet him. And there wasn’t any reason to assume that he wanted to meet her either. She shouldn’t get excited.

Ben Solo was just a voice on the phone.

Throwing away her wrapper, Rey headed back to the garage. Han and Chewie were already there, Rose was busy working on an engine and nobody had come in for a smog check or tire rotation which meant she had nothing to do.

“Hey, Rey.” Han called out. “I left my phone in my office. Can you go get it for me?”

“Okay.”

Han’s office was a mess, but it was an organized mess. His desk chair was rugged and well worn. The desk itself was slightly askew and there were scuffs on the edges, good sized piles of files, most likely arranged by Kaydel, were next to an old computer. There was some crumple up balls of paper around the trashcan as if Han had tried to throw them in and missed. A sofa rested against one wall, covered in dog hair and had a couple of rips in it, and between its cushions was his phone.

Rey grabbed it and was about to head back outside when she paused. Against her better judgement, she click the home button. _Don’t have a password. Don’t have a password._

It did not have a password.

Not knowing why she was doing what she was doing, Rey quickly clicked on Han’s contact book and began to search for Ben’s name, scrolling down to where the S’s were since it was sorted by last name and there it was.

_Ben Solo._

She reached for her phone, only to remember that she had left it in her locker. Looking around, she saw sticky notes on Han’s desk with a pen next to them. After writing Ben’s number down, Rey stuffed the note into her pocket and walked out of the room and to the garage like nothing had happened.

“You find it?” Han asked as he wiped his hands on a cloth.

“Yeah, I found it.”  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Exit Hux as buddy character. Enter Finn. It was strange to write a duo that actually liked each other instead of throwing insults back and forth.
> 
> Also, I had to be mindful of what Rey did on her phone because a certain someone is watching. 
> 
> Apparently, everyone was in the Navy at some point. I need to draw a relationship tree lol


	6. Day Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We have reached 3,000 views and it blows my mind. I didn't think anybody would like this at all Thank you all for taking the time to read my story <3
> 
> As of right now, I think this chapter is the longest one in the story. I wanted to explore other parts of Ben's job beside sitting around and doing nothing until Rey got off work.
> 
> Also, I wanted an excuse to bring Leia back. We get so much Han, Space Mom needs to be appreciated too.

For the lack of a better word, the photograph that was set as Rey’s wallpaper was certainly…unique.  Ben saw it yesterday and it was definitely not something he expected, but he found it somewhat endearing despite the drool.

He pulled up the photo to exam it once more, fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, his computer had a high definition screen. It was at that moment that Hux walked by, holding his third cup of coffee of the day. “Ew, gross. Is she drooling? How disgusting. Maker help the ugly sap that has _that_ as their soulmate.”

It was very difficult for Ben not to lash out and throw his stapler at the infuriating man. “Well, not even the Maker can help your soulmate.”

“Screw my soulmate, I only want to see color.”

It was barely the fourth day and Ben had already made contact with Rey twice. He didn’t instigate the occurrences, but he shouldn’t have taken part in them either. He shouldn’t have given her his name, he should have hung up as soon as she answered his father’s phone, but he didn’t. The loophole only protected him so much, how long would it take until he’d finally gave in and changed the course of his life? It was a fight Ben felt he couldn’t win.

Yesterday had been a slow day, actually it was always a slow day whenever Rey was occupied with work. Ben was starting to think that he should switch the hours he was in the office with the hours he spent at home monitoring her with his phone. Since Rey was more active at night, it would make sense that he used the computer during that time instead of such a limited device.

That would mean coming in as soon as Rey finished work and leaving when she when she started the next day. At first it sounded horrible, but she would be sleeping for a good chunk of that time. Ben just needed something to do while she slept. He was almost done with the _Rogue One_ trilogy, which meant he had to find something new to keep himself busy for about eight hours.

Changing his schedule would mean no Hux. That, in itself, was a good enough reason.

Hux was also the reason why he couldn’t go through with it. He was reassigned here because of Ben, there was no way the agency would allow them to be on different schedules.

_“Like it or not, we’re stuck together”_

Ben definitely did not like it.

Currently, Rey was at work, which meant he had nothing to do, again. Then he remembered that he hadn’t gone through the Snap-whatevers Rey and Finn, mostly Finn, had sent to each other while Rey was on the bus yesterday. There’d been too many in such a short period of time that Ben hadn’t even bothered to pay attention to them. He’d decided to go through them later, but put it off because he hadn’t felt like learning the specifics of the app. Although, he made a list of all the social media applications Rey had downloaded to her phone. Eventually, he would figure how they functioned and what their individual purposes were.

The pictures Rey had sent were undeniably boring, just random parts of the bus’s interior, unlike Finn’s, which were far more interesting. He had sent various pictures of a very happy looking corgi, one that looked vaguely familiar. It was probably a coincidence, a lot of dogs had similar patterns.

Expect one of the captions caused Ben to furrow his eyebrows.

_Don’t you wish you were here with Beebee?_

“Hey, Hux.” Ben called out.

Hux, who was currently stuffing his face with a sandwich, glared at him. He swallowed and snapped at Ben, “What do you want, Ren? Can’t you see I’m a little preoccupied here?”   

“I don’t care,” Ben responded instantly. “Doesn’t’ your guy have a corgi named Beebee?”

“Yeah. He also has a dead soulmate.”

Ignoring that last part, Ben was about to access Poe Dameron’s information when Mitaka walked up to his desk. “Agent Ren.” Outside of emails, it was strange that Mitaka would speak to him. Actually, Ben couldn’t recall Mitaka ever speaking to him face-to-face since he got here. “Director Snoke would like to see you.”

Ben looked at his computer and back to the squirrely man. “Now?”

“Yes, now.”

With no other choice, Ben got up from his desk and approached Snoke’s office. There was no doubt in his mind that everyone’s eyes were on him, including Hux’s. Word around the department was that nobody was summoned by Snoke unless they had done something wrong.

Which Ben knew he was guilty of.

After knocking on the door, Snoke’s low voice gave him permission to enter. “Agent Ren,” Snoke addressed him from his chair, and for the first time ever, Ben could see that Snoke’s eyes were a brilliant blue. “Sit.” He gestured to one of the two seats in front of his desk. It was a command that reminded Ben of his first day at the New York branch, the same day he had made contact with Rey’s hazel eyes. It was hard to believe that it was only a couple days ago.

Ben did as he was told, staring Snoke straight in the eye behind his sunglasses. “Sir.”

“How are you adjusting?”

He knew that he needed to watch his words around Snoke. The man was far more observation than he let on. “It is certainly very different from field work, but I am growing accustom to it.”

“I understand that you had laser eye surgery after your first day here.” Snoke sat in his chair as if it was a throne. “You should have informed me during the meeting we had that morning, when you and Agent Hux got your assignments.”

There was something inside Ben that was giving him the strength to hide the truth from Snoke. “I apologize, Sir. I had forgotten about it myself.”

Even though Snoke’s face did not show it, Ben could tell that he wasn’t entirely convinced. “It is not like the mighty Kylo Ren to forget something as important as that.”

He had to be careful. Ben knew he couldn’t show weakness in front of this man. “Perhaps, my months in recovery affected me and my abilities more I thought.”

“And you have the scar to prove it.” Whenever Hux made a comment about his face, Ben wasn’t insulted in the slightest. He knew Hux’s opinion didn’t matter, but Snoke’s words had pierced him to his very soul. It was not an insult, but a reminder of his failure. “You took a personal call the other day, did you not? And I was told you also made one yesterday.”

There was no use in denying it. Most likely it was the operator who had snitched on him, probably to avoid punishment. It was not Ben who broke the rules that day, but the operator probably felt that he had no choice except to follow the orders of Kylo Ren. “While I prefer to keep my work life separated from my personal life, those calls were made when the hours of the day where my Individual was not active on any of her devices since she was at work.”

“I see.” Snoke leaned forwards, resting his chin on his fingers. Like Snoke, Ben was an expert in reading expressions, this was the man who taught him after all. Something in his deformed face that told Ben there was something more, something very wrong and it had nothing to do with his next words. “Your particular skills are needed downstairs.”

It did not take a genius to understand what Snoke was getting at. “Sir, I haven’t done an interrogation in months. Are you positive that I should be the one to this?”

“They asked for you by name. Your reputation proceeds you, Ren.” There had never been a person that Ben could not crack. “If you ever wish to be assigned to field work once again, then you need to prove yourself here. Basement level five. They’re waiting for you.”

Ben nodded, there was nothing else to say. It was not a request the he could deny. As he headed out the door, Snoke called to him. He did not give Snoke the satisfaction of turning his entire body to face him, Ben only moved his head to the side. “Ren, you leave Ben Solo at the door. Be sure to remember that.”

The elevator was empty save for him. Snoke hadn’t mentioned anything about Rey, hopefully he was completely oblivious to their connection. Or maybe he was hiding it. Ben did not understand what he was feeling, or why. Snoke had been his mentor since the academy, but he could not shake the idea that there was something off about the man.

Soon enough, he reached basement level five. The elevator dinged, its steel doors opening, and Kylo Ren stepped out.

There were two agents waiting for him at the end of the dark hallway, darkened even more by his sunglasses, both of them becoming antsy at the sight of the tall, intimidating figure approaching them. “Agent Ren.” One of the agents, the smaller one, greeted him. Both of them stood rim rod straight. “This is Agent—“

“I don’t care. Your names mean nothing to me.” Kylo responded, ignoring their presence as he entered the room with the one way mirror which looked into the interrogation room where the prisoner was being held. It was a woman, handcuffed to the table, who seemed entirely and utterly bored with her current situation. “Who is the subject?”

“Ah, yes. Of course.” The taller one sputtered as he scrambled to hand Kylo the file. An FBI agent who became this scared this easily was useless to him. “Her name is Bazine Netal.”

“I can read.” Snoke should have just given him the file to begin with, he had no need for these two. His eyes quickly skimmed over the file, she was a highly sought out hitman who had successfully carried out a good number of assassinations in the last ten years without detection. Her recent target had been some politician whose name Kylo didn’t bother to read. His focus was on her, not the target. And it was pitiable, the only reason she had been caught was because the scaffolding she had been perched on had collapsed right next a police officer. There were some interesting tidbits he could use to his advantage. “I have all I need.”

He shoved the file back into the hands of one of the agents and entered the room.

Bazine was the first to speak, a mistake on her part, it showed her overconfidence. “Sending in their best, I assume? Those two other idiots couldn’t get anything out of me. What makes you so sure that you can?” She smiled the entire time she spoke, but there was a small glint in her eyes that said Bazine had become slightly anxious. “Sorry to say that your scar isn’t so scary with those ridiculous glasses on your face. Trying to avoid your soulmate are you?”

Kylo’s expression remained stoic. He did not sit, talking to her at eye level would only give her the illusion that they were on equal ground. She needed to know that he was the one with all the power. “You talk too much for someone in captivity. Perhaps, you are the one who believes that I can get what I need from you.”

“And what is it you need from me exactly?” Her dark hair was starting to fall in her face, Bazine couldn’t hide the fact that she wanted to move it out of the way, and that such a small thing could get on her nerves.

He began to walk around her. “The names of all your employers and how they got into contact with you. Plus, the names of any other hitmen you are aware of. I know hitmen work within their own circles, passing jobs onto the ones whose skills best fit the contract.”

“And what makes you think that I’ll give you what you want?” She was trying to make it sound as if she was taunting him, but the moment Kylo was behind her and out of her sight, he could see her body tense up.

“Because I know you.” He said as soon as he was in front of her once again. “For someone who’s so keen on staying unnoticed and under the radar, you fail at keeping your past a secret.”

Bazine’s mouth was a thin line.

“You were abandoned as a child and instead of being taken in by a loving family, it was another assassin who stole you in the middle of the night to become his apprentice. He trained you in his ways, but he never loved you. This is all you know, and it’s your one true weakness.”

“How so?”

“Because you want revenge. On the man who took away any chance you had of a normal childhood and robbed you of any chance of having a life as an adult since you were already well known by that time. You hated your fellow hitmen because they reminded you of what you are, and you hated the people who contracted you because it meant that you had a reason to continue in your line of work.”

Her hands had curled up into fists. She had been broken so easily.

How pathetic.

Wordlessly, Kylo handed one of the agents a notepad filled with names and stalked towards the elevator. Once he was inside and out of view, he slammed his fist into the metal wall. With every light that lit up on the lift’s way back to the Monitoring Department, Kylo punched the wall once more, sounds of rage escaping his lips. By the time he had reached his destination, Ben’s knuckles were raw and bloody, leaving behind a smear of evidence on the wall.

Ben wanted nothing more than to just sit down and forget about everything, but he needed to run his hand under the sink in the bathroom first. The water probably should have stung a little, but Ben felt nothing at all. He was numb. Donning the mask of Kylo Ren, the _real_ Kylo Ren, had taken more out of him than he thought it would. Especially after months of being only Ben Solo.  

He returned to his desk straight away. There was no need to tell Snoke the interrogation had gone well.

Kylo Ren never failed.

Hux wasn’t very subtle as he watched Ben take his seat, there was no hiding the fact that his eyes darted straight to Ben’s hand. “Did you have to punch them out or something?”

Ben saw no point in answering that question. Hux knew exactly what had happened.

“Did my computer receive any notifications?” His voice was void of emotion. Ben wanted to focus his attention on something else.

“No.”

“She’s probably still at work then.”

“Ren, it’s only been forty-five minutes since you left Snoke’s office.”

It felt like much longer than that.

Hours passed and Ben hadn’t done anything except sit in his chair. He hadn’t looked at his monitor, hadn’t bother trying to solve the mystery from early and his phone remained untouched, as did the many _Rogue One_ novels on it. What he did do was try to fight off the headache that was beginning to form, ignore the rising heat in his face, and try not to cough as his lungs felt constricted.

“Go home, Ren. You can monitor the girl from your phone.” Ben wanted to turn to Hux and tell him that he was ridiculous, but instead, he began to pack up. He wasn’t listening to Hux, he just wanted to go home.

The elevator was the same one as before, but any sign of what happened early had been cleaned away. Now, the wall was soothing, its cool temperature felt nice as he leaned against it.

He had to fight to not fall asleep on the subway.

By the time he reached his apartment, Ben was breathing heavily and wheezing every time he exhaled. Unlike the other day, the only thing he bothered to take off was his backpack, but he did set his glasses and phones down on the coffee table before he promptly collapsed on his couch. _Why is it always the couch?_

The last thing Ben thought of before he closed his eyes was that he wished he could hear Rey’s voice.

It was the sound of a key opening his door that woke him up and caused him to groan. There were only two other people who owned a key to his home, and it was shared between them. Ben had only given it to them because for a while he could only see out of one eye, and extremely strong painkillers made it unwise to leave him alone.

“Ben?” Leia called out as she closed the door. “Are you here?”

Ben wanted to tell her to go away, that he was perfectly fine, but all that came out was a cough which he quickly muffled by sticking his face into the couch cushion.

Her footsteps echoed throughout the apartment, and Ben tried to be as silent as possible. Maybe she would leave if she didn’t hear him. It was only when she turned on the light that Ben let out another noise of discomfort, his eyes burning from the sudden change in his surroundings.

“Really? You have a bed.” Ben felt that if he opened his mouth all that would come out was even more coughs. He settled for just rolling over and glaring at her. “What the hell were you trying to do? Camouflage yourself into your couch and hope I couldn't see you? I hate to tell you, Benjamin, but you’re a little too big to go unnoticed.”

“Mom, what are you even doing here?” Ben managed to croak out before he starting coughing like he thought he would.

Leia crouched down next to him and put her hand on his forehead, he wanted to flinch away but her cold hand provided some relief. “Armitage called me and said that you went home early. Actually, his exact words were ‘That dumbass looked like he was dying and as much as I wished that would happen, it actually inconveniences me.’” She removed her hand. “And I have to agree with him, Ben. You are a dumbass. You have a fever.”

“Who the fuck is Armitage?” Ben said, ignoring what she just told him.

“Armitage,” Leia repeated. “Your partner for almost the past decade.”

He coughed. “His name is Hux.”

“Yes, Armitage Hux.”

“He doesn’t have a first name. It’s just Hux.”

Leia rolled her eyes. “You’re trying to deflect the conversion. Didn’t you hear me? You’re sick, Ben.”

“No, I’m not.”

Ben Solo never got sick. At least, not since he was a child, and even then, he had taken care of himself.

“I’m going to go get you some medicine.” She stood up and was about to leave until she saw that he was still wearing his shoes. Without saying anything, Leia began to undo the laces and took them off for him.

He wanted to say something. Why was she doing this now when she never helped him as a child? Was this just out of guilt or pity? Why did she even care?

The answer was obvious so he held his tongue. It was only leftover resentment that made him think that way.

“I’ll be back.” Leia patted his foot and then she was gone.

A few minutes after the door closed, Ben rolled onto his side and grabbed his phone. He had only been asleep for about an hour and Rey wasn’t done with work yet. It would be some time before his mother returned, a couple more minutes of sleep wouldn’t hurt anyone.

But it did.

He dreamt of a knife and blood that clouded his vision as it trailed down his forehead and into his eye. When he woke up, gasping for air, his mother was standing at the end of the couch with a plastic shopping bag in her hands.

“You said it was getting better.” She didn’t sound accusatory, just sad.

Ben swallowed, his mouth felt incredibly dry. “It is.”

“You were screaming.” Leia set the bag down on the coffee table and began taking various bottles of cold relief medicine out of it. “It wasn’t like this in the beginning. You just woke up groggy when Han and I were here, but then again, you were on painkillers.”

“I didn’t know I scream.”

She held out a small cup filled with liquid. “I can’t help with the dreams, but I can help with this.”

He stared at the cup and then back to her. As strong as Leia Organa was, she looked like she wanted shed the tears she knew he would never allow himself to do. Ben took the outstretched medicine and drank it. “Thank you, mom.”

A small smile graced her face. “Of course. If you can’t sleep then just relax. I’ll make you something to eat.”

Ben tried his hardest not to grimace. His mother could do many things, but cooking was not one of them. The only thing she was capable of making was chicken noodle soup, and it came from a can. He had endured that for two months.

He heard his cabinets opening and closing as Leia searched through his kitchen. “Ben, where’s the soup? All I can find is cereal with marshmallows in it.”

Ben prayed that she wouldn’t find it.

“Oh, here it is. I wonder why it was at the back.”

_Shit._

That soup needed to be avoided at all costs. “Hey, mom?”

“Yeah?” She hurried over to him.

“I have some stuff in my mailbox downstairs, do you mind getting it for me?”

Leia looked from him and back to the kitchen, then she furrowed her eyebrows. For a moment, Ben thought she was seeing right through him, knowing exactly what he was trying to do. But his worrying had been for nothing because she nodded. “The soup can wait a little longer, I guess. We should let the medicine take effect first.”

Ben coughed violently, covering his mouth with one hand and using the other to point at his backpack. “I put the keys back in there.” He somehow managed to get the words out.

She did as he asked and Ben sighed, he could only prolong the inevitable. Looking around the apartment, he realized that he really only spent time here when he was trying to sleep or recovering from some sort of sickness, both of which he seemed to do better on his couch. Well, minus that episode a little bit earlier.

It didn’t take long for Leia to return, a stack of letters in one hand and a package in the other. He sat up as best as he could. “Jesus, Ben, when was the last time you check your mailbox? And what’s even in here?” She asked, handing him both his keys and the package, and put the rest of the mail on his kitchen counter.

“About two weeks ago.” His voice was horse as he responded, his throat was still sore despite the medicine. Using his keys, Ben cut through the tape sealing the box. “And these are books.”

“Books?” The microwave was running now. Ben should have thrown those cans of soup away when he had the chance. “But I downloaded that Kindle app onto your phone. You used it the entire time after you were released from the hospital.”

“It was convenient back then, my arm was in a sling. I prefer reading physical copies anyways.” He didn’t dare tell her that he had already read these except for the third one. When he ordered them, he wasn’t sure which version of the trilogy he should buy, but now Ben was glad that he spent a little more money to get the boxset in hardcover. They also had the original cover designs, not the ones from the movies, which was nice.

He could see her shaking her head from his position on the couch. “Ben Solo, one of these days, you’re really going to have to learn how to use your phone.” Leia began to rifle through the kitchen drawers, probably looking for a spoon for the dreaded soup. “Young people spend a lot of time on their phones these days.” Clearly, she didn’t know that Rey threw her phone into her locker for eight hours every day. “Of course, I know they use them for much more than just games. It wouldn’t hurt to research some of the apps people use on a daily basis.”

“I can call and access my email from my phone, that’s all I need it for.” He paused, thinking of the list of social media sites Rey visited during her morning commute in his backpack. “There’s also an occasional text message.”

Leia set the steaming bowl of soup on the coffee table. “Text who? You only have four people in your contact list.”

Surely she was wrong. Ben counted them in his head in an attempt to prove her wrong. _Leia, Han, Hux, and Luke._ Suddenly, he was very glad he hadn’t chosen to use his fingers to count, there’d be one left over.

He chose to remain silent.

“That’s reminds me, Han said you called him while you were at work yesterday. Everything all right?”

“It’s fine.” Ben eyed the soup out of the corner of his eye. “He told me to call a couple of days ago, but I haven’t had the chance until then.” For some reason, he didn’t mention that Rey had picked up the first time he tried to call. Like it was a secret between the two of them. Well, unless Han checked the list of recent calls on his phone. “All he said was that he wanted me to visit the garage tomorrow. Apparently, Han decided to give Rey the day off.” Ben made a face and then shook his head. “I don’t believe him for a second.”

“Your father is such a meddler. I like Rey as much as he does, but I prefer things to move on more naturally.” Leia watched as Ben laid back down before pulling out the third and final _Rogue One_ novel and turned to the first page. “You should be wearing your reading glasses.”

If his father was a meddler, then his mother was unquestionably a worrywart. “It’s fine. I don’t need them.” Ben said as he held the book close to his face. It was just like the last time she took care of him, but back then, half his face had been covered in gauze and Ben felt incredibly stupid when Leia forced him to wear them as he read. Han only laughed and said that they should have bought him a monocle instead.

“I’ll go get them. I know where you hide them. Shoe box in the back of your closet.”

 _How did she know?_ “Wait, no.” She was already in his bedroom before he had a chance to protest.

He was going to get Hux back for this.

She was on the phone when she came back into the living room, his glasses case in hand and a blanket draping her arm. “Han Solo, I swear to the Maker if you’re trying to trick him…” Leia frowned at something his father had said. “Of course, I don’t want him to die alone.” She handed him his glasses and put the blanket on him before pointing at the soup, a gesture that meant to eat it.

It wasn’t as if Ben was ungrateful that his mother had taken time out of her day to nurse him back to health, but this did seem a bit excessive.

“He wants to talk to you.” She held out the phone just as Ben had finished putting on his glasses. He rolled his eyes, all Ben wanted to do was read his book before the medicine wore out and he started coughing again.

Han started talking as soon as Ben held the phone up to his ear. “What’s this about you not believing me?”

This was not the way he had envisioned this day to go. Between Kylo Ren, his cold, and being scolded by both his parents, Ben was surprised he hadn’t exploded yet. “Dad, don’t deny the fact that you’ve already made Rey speak to me more than once. What else am I supposed to think?”

“I only did the one time. Was there another time?” That meant Rey also thought of their conversation as a secret.

Ben ran his fingers through his hair. “Once, I meant once. The cold is making me mess things up.” He lied smoothly, shocking himself in the process.

“Listen, I’m not lying when I say that it’s her day off. You can even check my computer.”

“Your computer is a dinosaur.”

“You can even check Kaydel’s computer.”

If Han was willing to let him go through Connix’s computer and risk facing her wrath if she ever discovered what they did, then he must be telling the truth.

“Okay. I believe you.”

“So you’ll come tomorrow?” He sounded very hopeful, very excited.

Ben eyed the phone on the coffee table, the one that was capable of monitoring Rey anywhere. “Yeah, I’ll come. I’ll just take a sick day from the office.” The irritating sensation in his throat was starting to come back, he slowly sat up and grabbed the opened bottle of medicine. It said four hour relief, but it had barely been an hour and a half. Maybe one of the other brands would work better.    

“That’s great! Can’t wait.” Ben could practically hear the smirk on Han’s face. “Hold on, I got to go help Rose with something.”

_I have a bad feeling about this._

“Hey, Rey. Since you aren’t changing any oil or doing smog tests right now, can you stay on the phone with Ben? I’ve told you how hard it is to get a hold of him. In fact, this week is probably the most he’s called in years. ”

He was going to kill his dad.

“You conniving old man.” Ben hissed, as much as his throat would let him, into the phone. 

Han didn’t pay any attention to him. “Here you go.”                                                                             

“Hi, Ben. It’s me, Rey. Wait, you knew that already. Han called me over while he was still holding the phone to his ear.”

“Yeah, I heard.” His throat had betrayed him, he sounded even raspier than before. Why couldn’t this have happened earlier when the medicine was actually working? “Hi, Rey.” It felt like sandpaper was scratching against his insides.

“You sound sick.  Are you sick?”

“A little.” He coughed, and scowled. The universe was clearly messing with him, it had to be. “I’ve heard it’s pretty easy for old people to get ill. I am twenty-nine, after all.”

The conversation on her end briefly went silent. “I never thought about that before.” Then, more quickly, she added. “Wait, was that a joke?”

“I guess it was.” He had even surprised himself. Ben looked down at the hand he had used to punch the wall in a fit of rage, the broken skin was already scabbing over, hiding the dark red beneath it, and the area around his knuckles had become an ugly mixture of purple and yellow.  

So this is what the result of Kylo Ren’s anger truly looked like.

“Ben? Are you still there?” 

“Yeah, I am.” 

“Are you okay?”

“No.” It was an honest answer. Then he thought of that photo of her from this morning, and finally looked away from his injured hand. “But I think I might be, someday.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone save Ben from the soup and his reading glasses. Does anyone else get sick when they're stressed out? I do. And, oh man, cough medicine does not last long for me at all. 
> 
> Sorry there wasn't a lot of Reylo again. I plan to make up with it next chapter. She stole his number after all. 
> 
> Ben really needs to be trained in the art of cell phone apps.


	7. Day Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took me so long. 
> 
> I had a little trouble figuring some things out, but I think it's okay.
> 
> Big thanks to my sister who helped me. I had to send this to her in fragments because I was constantly getting stuck.

Rey was lying on her unmade bed, staring at the sticky note she held up in the air. She didn’t know what had compelled her to search through Han’s phone or why she felt the need to steal Ben’s number. Finn’s words from the other day rang through her ears. _Tell me you didn’t sneak through your boss’s phone on your very first day_. No, she had waited till her second. 

In honor of a bank holiday in England, Han had given her the day off as a gesture of respect towards her British roots, despite the fact she had only worked three days so far. It was a little bit strange, none of her other bosses had ever done so, but Rey wasn’t complaining.

Even though she had woken up hours ago, there was no need to get out of her pajamas or bother to brush her hair, choosing to put it in the sloppiest bun she’s ever done. Makeup was too troublesome as well. Rey was far too comfortable in the old sweatpants she had gotten years ago and the T-shirt Finn had gotten her for Christmas last year despite the fact it was two sizes too big. The shirt’s design had made her laugh, it had a picture of the TARDIS from _Doctor Who_ and beneath that were the words, ‘My Patronus is the TARDIS’. Sadly, the shirt now had a large stain in the front, she couldn’t remember how it got there, and she was never able to get it out.

The sticky note was still the focus of her attention, that is, until Finn burst through her bedroom door looking utterly panicked. “Rey, I need to borrow your bus pass.” Without missing a beat, he started rifling through her things, even the dirty clothes that were on her floor.

Rey sat up, more worried than annoyed, she didn’t mind Finn digging through her stuff since the two of them had given up on boundaries a long time ago. “Why?” She asked as he scurried around the room.

“I can’t find mine,” he explained as he opened a drawer only to quickly close it again. “Phasma’s going to have my head if I’m late.”

Taking pity on the poor man, Rey reached over to her shabby bedside table, grabbed her wallet and tossed it to him. Finn fumbled as he caught it and with a sigh of relief, he took out her bus pass. “Oh my god, thanks. I get to live another day”. He set her wallet down on her dresser before noticing the note Rey was clenching her hand. “What’s that?”

Her immediate reaction was to hide it behind her back. “It’s nothing.’

Finn shook his head. “If it was nothing then you wouldn’t hide it from me.”

His words rung true. The two of them had always told each everything, no matter how embarrassing it was. As she held her head down in shame, Rey handed him the note, chewing on her lip the entire time.

Rey was able to see his reaction through her eyelashes. She could see when his eyes widened in shock, and when his mouth went slightly agape. “He gave you his number?”

She slowly rose her head to look him in the eye, abet a bit anxiously. “I stole it.” There was a pause. “I searched through Han’s phone for it.”

“Holy shit, Rey.”

There was the need to cover her face with her hands, but she fought against it. “I know. I don’t know why I did it. It was like another person was controlling me.”

There was nothing but silence as Rey wallowed in her own guilt and drowned in her embarrassment.

“Where’s your phone,” Finn asked suddenly.

The question caught Rey off guard, confusing her. “I think I left it in my backpack by the door, but I don’t think it’s charged. Why?”

“Okay.” He nodded his head a couple of times and then pulled out his phone. “We’ll just use mine then.” Finn tapped the screen as he simultaneous read the sticky note.

As soon as Rey realized what was happening, she jumped off her bed. “Finn, no!” She reached out for his phone, but he anticipated her movements and dodged, dropping the note in the process. He rushed out the room, holding the phone to his ear, and she gave chase.

They were at a stalemate in the living room, Finn on one side of the couch and Rey on the other. Every time she would move in one direction, he would move in the other.

“It’s ringing,” he whispered, but there was no need to announce it. The volume on Finn’s phone was so loud she could hear from where she stood. The phone continued to ring and Rey continued to try to catch her traitorous friend. The ringing went on for what felt like forever, she desperately hoped that Ben was one of those people who didn’t answer when it was a number they didn’t recognize. Her hopes were dashed when a click echoed out from the cellphone’s speakers.

“Hello?”

Normally, she’d enjoyed listening to Ben’s voice, but now was not that time.

The call didn’t last long, Rey made sure of that. Before another word could be spoken by either men, she jumped over the couch and tackled Finn. All the air seemed to escape from his lungs as Rey collided with his body, the noise they made as they crashed down onto the floor was louder than she thought it would be. As the phone skidded across the floor. Rey crawled over a dazed Finn and scrambled towards the cellphone.

“Hux, if this is some kind of prank call then I’m going to—”

She ended the call before Ben could finish his threat to whoever this Hux person was.

“I hate you,” Rey said, but there was no malice behind her words. They got to their feet and she handed him his phone. “I can’t believe you did that.”

Finn grinned, actually grinned, as if he had done nothing wrong. “You know you were never going to call him.”

“Well, I was—” She let out a deep breath. “I was going to work up the courage to do it eventually.”

“And I believe that, but I think it’s better to just rip off the bandage.” He looked at his phone. “Crap, I’m going to be late now. I gotta go or Phasma is going to give me the night shift again. Enjoy your day off.” Finn clapped her on her shoulder before heading out the door.

Two hours later, Rey was slumped on the couch, her appearance unchanged and a cup of instant ramen in her hands. It was probably a bad idea to torture herself by watching the cooking channel, the television’s flickering screen did nothing to diminish how the mouthwatering the food looked. Her phone lay next to her, now fully charged.

She had just set down the empty ramen container, her stomach barely satisfied, when her cellphone began to ring. After wiping her mouth on the collar of her shirt, Rey reached for the phone and checked the Caller ID, fully expecting it to be Finn. To her surprise, it was Kaydel.  

“Kaydel?”

“Hey, Rey. Sorry to call you on your day off.” Her voice was kind and friendly before turning businesslike. “I wanted to let you know that your paycheck is ready. So if you have time today, you can come and get it.

Rey, slightly puzzled, shot up at the mention of money. “I’ve only been working there for three days.”

“It’s the end of the pay period,” Kaydel explained like it was obvious. To anyone else it might have been, but none of Rey’s other jobs had official pay periods, she had lived off of tips and was always paid under the table.  “Everyone gets paid regardless of their hours. It’s okay if you want to wait until you come into work tomorrow.”

“No!” Rey practically yelled into the phone, the possibility of eating something other than ramen entered her mind and was far too tempting. “I mean, no, yeah. I can come in today.”

“Okay. See you later.”

It wasn’t until Kaydel hung up that Rey remembered Finn had borrowed her bus pass, but luckily there was a person she could ask for help. She quickly ran into her room, dug through a pile of clothes, and found an old cardigan. It had a decent-sized hole and was missing all its buttons, but it have would do. It didn’t matter to her which pair of shoes she put on, Rey just needed something for her feet. Once her phone and keys were stuffed into the pockets of her sweatpants, she sprinted down the hall and knocked rapidly on a specific door.

When Poe opened the door, his eyes widened as he took in her disheveled appearance. “Rey?” Her chest was heaving as if she had just ran a marathon. “Is everything okay?”

Rey spoke quickly, her words a jumbled mess. “Poe, I need your help.”

“Is it the microwave again?”

“What? No.”

“The toaster? You know what, I’ll just get the fire extinguisher.” He turned around and walked into his apartment, heading toward the kitchen where she assumed said item was located.

She followed him, crossing the threshold without permission. “Poe, nothing is on fire.”

He turned around, fire extinguisher in hand, and a skeptical look on his face. “Are you sure? You guys don’t exactly have the best track record.”

“I’m positive. Nothing is on fire.” With a quick look around the tidy and organized apartment, she saw Beebee laying happily in front of a flat screen TV that Rey hadn’t seen before. “Is that new?” She asked, pointing to the television.

“Yeah, just got it.” Poe went to return the fire extinguisher to its original spot. “Do you guys know that the color is off on your TV?”

“No, Poe. We can’t see color.” She reminded him. Having a friend like Poe, someone who could see color, had its perks, but sometimes he seemed to forget that they saw the world differently.

He scratched the back of his head. “I’m sorry. I forgot.”

“It’s okay.” She shrugged. “That’s what we get for buying a TV from DJ.”

“DJ?” Poe raised his eyebrows. “You mean the shady guy from down the street who sells random stuff out of the trunk of his car?”

“Yeah, he has a nice variety of…products and they’re cheap too.” Rey shook her head, remembering what she had come here for. “I need a ride to work so I can pick up my paycheck, Finn took my bus pass. Can you help me?

“Okay, let me just get my keys and—” But Rey ran out the door before he could finish his sentence. She was almost at the end of the hall when he called out, “Hey! Don’t you want to put on some clothes first?”

“I am wearing clothes!”

“I mean something other than your pajamas!”

Ignoring him, Rey headed towards the stairs and took them two at a time, eager and confident she wouldn’t fall. In no time at all, she made it down all four flights of stairs and out onto the street.

D’Qar Street was busy with the sound of passing vehicles, but none of them mattered expect for the one closest to her. Poe’s car was parked in a spot designated for tenants of the Raddus Apartments. She waited by the passenger side door, drumming her fingers impatiently on the roof of the car. _What the heck is taking him so long?_ Moments later, he emerged from the building with Beebee trotting along besides him.

“C’mon, let’s go,” she said, tugging at the door handle. “Open the door.”

He unlocked the doors and Rey threw it open. As soon as she moved to sit down, Poe shook his head. “Nuh-uh, get in the back.”

“What?”

“Get in the back in the back,” he repeated. “That’s Beebee’s spot.”

Rey look at him like he had lost his damn mind. “You have to be joking.”

“No, get in the back,” he said for the third time. “Pull the seat forward and get in the back.”

Scowling, she did as she was told and climbed into the back seat. Beebee jumped into the car after her and she watched as Poe strapped him in using something that could only be classified as a seatbelt for dogs. Once he was sure that Beebee was secured, he closed the door, jogged around the front of the car and got in. After checking all his mirrors, he finally pulled out onto the busy street. When they reached the first stop light, Poe turned to her and said, “You know you’re wearing Finn’s slippers, right?”

“Just drive, _Commander_ ,” she ordered.

After what felt like eternity, they arrived at the Millennium Falcon. Rey unbuckled her seatbelt and waited impatiently for Beebee to get out before attempting to do so herself, easier said than done. No matter how many times she pulled on the lever to fold the passenger seat over, it wouldn’t budge. From the rear window she could see a smiling Beebee sitting next to an amused looking Poe. 

“Need some help?” He laughed.

“No.” She growled. “I can do it.” 

With all her strength, she gave the seat one final push and whooped as it went down. Her excitement was short-lived as she was presented with another challenge, getting out of the car. She didn’t know whether to go feet first or head first, but somehow she managed to get out, stumbling slightly as her feet touched the ground.

“See, told you I could do it.” She said triumphantly, strutting passed Poe and towards the Millennium Falcon’s entrance. 

The bell above the door rang as they walked through it, causing Kaydel to look up from her computer, ready to greet potential customers. “Welcome to the Millennium Falc—” She stopped mid-sentence, realizing it was just Rey. A look of horror crossed Kaydel’s face, disappearing as fast as it appeared. “Hi Rey.” 

“Hi, Kaydel,” Rey responded with a smile on her face, then she gestured to her companions. “This is my friend, Poe.” He waved. “And this is Beebee.” His small size made it so Kaydel had to look over the counter in order to see him. The dog was sitting proudly by Poe’s feet.

“Hello.” She greeted politely. To Rey she said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up and make you rush over here.”

“Huh?” Rey tilted her head, confused by her co-worker’s words. “Oh, no, don’t worry about it. I wasn’t sleeping. I’ve been awake for hours.”

“Oh, well…um.” Kaydel cleared her throat, advoiding Rey’s eyes. “Let me just go get your paycheck from the office.” In the short amount of time that she had been working at the Millennium Falcon, Rey had never heard the office referred to as ‘Han’s office’ by anyone except Han, everyone knew it was Kaydel’s pseudo-office.

While they waited, she caught Poe staring at the vast amount of awards and plaques on the wall, none of them hung by Han, but by Leia, Rose, or Kaydel. Han really only cared about working on the cars. “Thinking about coming to us for all your automobile needs now?” 

“Maybe,” He grinned, the grin falling from his face as he patted his pockets. 

“What’s wrong?”

“My phone, I left it at home.” He shook his head, chuckling. “You made us leave in such a hurry that I completely forgot about it.”

Rey opened her mouth to defend her actions, but it was at that moment that Kaydel returned from the office. Rey’s complete attention was drawn to the envelope Kaydel held. “Here you go, Rey.” Rey eagerly accepted the envelope, snatching it out of Kaydel’s hands as if it would disappear if she didn’t take it.

“Look, Poe.” She held the envelope in front of his face. “ _Money_.”

“I can see that, Rey.” He took a small step back. “We should probably head to the bank.”

“Han’s in the back if you want to say ‘hi’ before you leave.” Rey whipped around at the sound of Kaydel’s voice. “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind seeing you.” She pointed behind her in the direction of the garage. 

“Yeah, sure.” Rey folded the envelope and shoved it in her pocket. Turning back toward Poe she asked “Are you and Beebee going to be okay out here?”

“Of course, look at Beebee. He’s having the time of his life.” He gestured to the dog, who was now lying down where he’d been sitting. “I’ll just have a look around. Those windshield wipers look promising.”

Rey nodded, turned on her heel and made her way toward the garage, accidentally bumping into Rose. She grabbed Rose’s shoulders, steadying her. “Sorry, Rose. I didn’t see you there.” 

Rose looked her up and down, eyes lingering on her shirt. “My Patronus is an otter and I love David Tennant. Wait, didn’t Han give you the day off?” 

“Yeah, he did, that was so nice of him. Apparently its payday, so I just came down to get my paycheck. Kaydel said that Han was in the garage and I just wanted to say ‘hi’ before we head to the bank.”

Rose closed her hand around the crescent shaped medallion she always wore, a somber look on her face. “I’m actually on my way to talk to Kaydel about getting a day off too.”

Rey smiled. “I’ll see you tomorrow then.” 

“Okay” Rose said returning the smile though it didn’t quite reach her eyes. 

Walking into the garage, Rey saw that Han was busy talking to a customer. They were standing by a very old, beat up car. She didn’t recognize the model, but she could tell it needed a lot of work. Her fingers itch with anticipation, she couldn’t wait to work on that beautiful piece of garbage.

To her surprise, Chewie III was not in his usual place. Instead he was standing very close to the customer, staring up at him, his tail wagging faster than she’d ever seen before. Her gaze shifted from the dog to the customer.

He had his back to her so the first thing that she noticed was that he was extremely tall, even taller than Han. Her eyes trailed up the length of his body before settling on the wavy locks that barely brushed the top of his broad shoulders. She rarely came across hair that was purely black, most people with dark hair tended to have small amounts of gray in it, yet this man’s rivaled the night sky.

Rey didn’t want to interrupt them, but it would only take a second and then they could get back to talking business. As she neared the two men, she caught a piece of their conversation.

“This is why you called me?” The man asked, his voice laced with disbelief. Even so, she found herself drawn to his deep, baritone voice. “To say that you want me to fix up some ancient relic of a car with you?” 

“Lando gave it to me,” Han stated, as if it were a good enough reason. “It just needs a little tune up.”

“Well, Lando should stick to breeding dogs. He knows jack shit about cars. This thing is a piece of junk.” He kicked a tire for emphasis and it let out a rush of air as it deflated. “See?”

Han shook his head. “Why’d you have to go and do that? Now we’re going to have to get new tires.”  

“It’s going to need a lot more than just new tires,” the man mumbled.

“Listen, it’s going to be a lot of fun.” Han promised, putting his hands on of both of the man’s shoulders and looking intensely into the man’s face. “You’re better at this than you think, probably because you had such a good teacher.”

As soon the words left Han’s voice, the rusty bumper fell to the floor with a loud clang. Both men turned toward the source of the sound. He jabbed his thumb in the direction of the piece of metal. “Now, why’d you have to and do _that_?”

“I didn’t do _anything_!” The man said in an exasperated tone.

“You looked at her funny! You scared her!”

“ _It’s a car_ , dad! It’s not a person!” The man was obviously annoyed. “Look dad, I really don’t—“

“Hold that thought, Ben.” Han interrupted, looking in her direction. “Looks like another homeless person got in.” He stepped around Ben, eyes widening in recognition. “Oh! Hi, Rey. My bad.”

 Nothing after “dad” had registered in her brain. This, the man standing before her, was Ben Solo.

_Oh no._

Out of all the scenarios she had come up, this was not how she thought they’d meet. In her imagination, Han would introduce them to each other in the front room or Ben would stroll into the garage while she was working on a car. She never envisioned accidentally coming across him on a day where she hadn’t put any effort into her appearance.

Heat rose to her face and she quickly pulled at the fabric of her ratty cardigan, wrapping it tightly around her torso in an attempt to hide the large stain on her shirt. There wasn’t much she could do about everything else, there was no time to fix her messy hair and she could only wish that she had changed out of her well-worn sweatpants or grabbed actual shoes on her way out of the apartment.  

Han leaned towards Ben, who still hadn’t turned around, and clapped him on the shoulder. Rey thought she heard him say something that sounded like, “I had nothing to do with this. Must have been Kaydel.”

He walked away from his son, heading towards the front room. Chewie looked torn, unsure whether to follow Han or stay with Ben, but ultimately he chose to go with Han. “Good to see you today, Rey.”

“Yeah, you too,” she said distantly, her eyes still fixated on Ben.

Rey knew what was going to happen next and with little time to mentally prepare herself, she ran a checklist through her head. _Did I brush my teeth? Yes, but I ate ramen. What about make up? No. Damn it, I wasn’t planning to go out today. Oh God, am I even wearing a bra? Yes! Success!_

After what felt like an eternity, Ben finally turned around. Her grip on her cardigan loosened, the fabric slipping out of her fingers, revealing her dirty T-shirt.

A pair of dark sunglasses were perched on his nose. Hope died in her chest. That could only mean one thing.

_He doesn’t want to meet his soulmate._

She swore she saw the corner of his mouth twitch slightly.

“I like your reindeers.”

“Huh?” Ben pointed to her feet. Horrified, the blood drained from her face. She was wearing Finn’s slippers, Finn’s _reindeer_ slippers that she bought from DJ as a joke. Desperate to change the subject, she blurted, “Your voice sounds different on the phone!”

“Everyone’s does.”

“Yeah…” She trailed off, the conversation dwindling into silence. Rey bit her lip, far too embarrassed to say anything. Her eyes darted from his face to the floor and back again.

“Is it the scar or the sunglasses?”

“Glasses!” She mentally slapped herself, that came out more enthusiastic than she had intended.

He ran his fingers through his dark hair. “Laser eye surgery.”

“Must make finding your soulmate pretty difficult.”

“It’s was never a priority. My career has been my main focus.”

“Oh, what do you do?” She asked intrigued. Ben didn’t answer right away, maybe he’d misunderstood her. “Your job, I mean. Han said it keeps you busy.”

 “Mobile Applications Development.” He said, dragging a hand through his hair.

“Really?”

“Yes.”

She smiled. “Have you worked on any popular ones?”

“I don’t know what happens after they’re released. I only program them.”

“Oh cool, wait. If you work in programming, then why does Han want you to work on the car with him?” She said, gesturing toward the old car just as one of the side mirrors fell off. “Isn’t that a little bit outside of your area of expertise?”

“Believe it or not, I actually do know a lot about about cars. I used to work on them with my dad. He called it ‘bonding’.” His phone buzzed, and he scowled when he looked at the screen. “I have to go into work. One of my co-workers is having some issues. It’s was nice talking to you, Rey.”

Ben was about to walk around her when she grabbed his arm, his body going rigid at the contact. “Wait.” He stared at her hand, and she thought that maybe she had crossed a line. She immediately let go of him. “Would you like to go out sometime?”

“What?” He recoiled.

“Just to hang out! I don’t know many people outside of work. Well, I know Finn. And my neighbor. And his dog.” At this point, she was just rambling.

He visibly relaxed. “Okay.”

She hadn’t expected that to work. “What?”

“I said ‘okay’.”

She sighed in relief and couldn’t help the smile that appeared on her face. “Okay.” she breathed.

“Hey, Rey, you ready to go? I was thinking after the bank, we could go back to my place and order some food.” Poe said as he walked into the garage. “The dogs are done smelling butts so we can go now.” Then he looked from Rey to Ben and grinned. “Hey.” His eyes landed on the car behind them. “Nice car, it’s a classic. She’s got good bones. ”

“Thanks.” Ben deadpanned. For some reason, his demeanor had changed. “I’m going to work on it with my dad.”

Han poked his head through the door. “You are?”

Ben’s mouth was a thin line. “Yes.”

“Great!” Han waved him over. “C’mon, let’s go call Lando to see if he knows a guy who can get us original parts. Rey’s gotta go to back to bed anyway.”

Her face warmed and she realized what she must look like to others. “Bye, Han. Bye, Ben.” She said quickly, grabbing Poe’s hand and dragging him out of the garage at a brisk pace. 

“Wait, why are we walking so fast?”

She ignored him, continuing her escape through the front room. “C’mon Beebee,” She said as they passed him. He followed.

Once they were in the parking lot, Rey let go of Poe’s hand and rushed toward the car. “Open the car, Poe.”

“But—“

“Open the car.”

He pulled out his keys and clicked the button on the remote. Rey yanked the door opened and practically dived into the back seat, burying her face into her hands.

After Beebee was settled in and Poe himself had put on his seatbelt, he turned around to face her. “What just happened?”

“Never let me leave the house dressed like this again.” She moaned.

“I tried.” She let out another moan, one that sounded close to tears. Poe sighed. “I know just what you need.”

After a quick stop at the grocery store, where Poe picked up cheese puffs and couple bottles of cola, he drove them back to the Raddus. She was zombie-like as she climbed the stairs and as soon as she was in her apartment, she collapsed onto the couch. Poe sat down at the foot of the couch near her head.

An hour went by, maybe two, she wasn’t sure anymore. At some point, Poe had opened the container of cheese puffs and popped the top off a soda. She’d refused the soda earlier, but Poe refused to give up on the cheese puffs. He tossed one at her face, aiming for her mouth. “Sustenance, you need sustenance.”

“Food would only keep me alive,” She said, speaking for the first time since they’d left the Millennium Falcon.

Finn burst into the apartment. “Oh Yeah! I found my bus pass! You’ll never guess where I found it. In my wallet! You know, I didn’t look in there because I never have money so what’s the point? It’s always empty anyways. Just now, I was looking for my keys and then I remembered I put it in my wallet so I wouldn’t leave it in my pocket and accidentally wash it again!”

“Finn,” Poe said. “Read the scene, buddy.”

“Oh no, what’s wrong?”

“I don’t know! She just went catatonic on me! She’s refusing the ‘sad snacks’!”

Rey rolled onto her back. “I met Solo Junior.”

Finn rushed over to the couch. “You met Solo Junior dressed like _that_?”

“Yes.” She wailed.

“Wait,” Poe cut in. “Who’s Solo Junior?”

“Han’s son,” Finn told him through a mouth full of cheese puffs.

“Yes, I gathered that, but why is he important to us?”

“Because Rey has a crush on his voice.”

“I do not!”

“Go back to being dead so I can tell Poe everything. Here,” Beebee was suddenly plopped onto her stomach, “take the dog.”

“Hey, that’s my dog.” Poe exclaimed.

“He’s a therapy dog.” Finn shot back. “Let him do his job.”

“This _is_ therapeutic,” she mumbled as she scratched the back of Beebee’s ears. 

Finn launched into a recap of the last couple of days, detailing Rey’s interactions with Ben. It didn’t take long. “And that’s everything.” He finished.

“That’s not everything,” Rey murmured. “I asked him out.”

“You asked him out!?” Finn and Poe said simultaneously.

“I meant to. He looked a little freaked out so I said ‘hang out’ instead.”

“When are you guys going to ‘hang out’?” Finn asked making air quotes at the phrase ‘hang out.’

“Bloody hell,” she whispered. “I forgot to give him my number!”

“Well, how are we supposed to set up a date?” Rey and Finn turned towards the pilot. He shrugged. “What? I’m invested now.”

Silence filled the apartment. All of them mourning what could have been.

“STICKY NOTE!” Finn and Rey scrambled to their feet and started for her room.

“Oh, we’re migrating,” Poe said from behind them.

Rey tossed Beebee gently onto her unmade bed and scanned the room. “Where is it? Finn you had it last!”

“I don’t know! I dropped it when you chased me this morning. If your room wasn’t such a disaster then we’d know exactly where to find it.”

“Be quiet and just look!” She yelled as she dug through a pile of somewhat clean laundry.  

“What are we looking for?” Poe asked as he joined them.

“A sticky note!” Rey answered, checking under the bed. “It has Ben’s number on it!”

“What color is it?”

“POE!”

“Right, sorry! I forget.”

Poe’s apology was covered up by Finn’s sound of triumph. “I FOUND IT!”

Rey ran over, snatched it out of his hands and stared at it for a long moment. They crowded around it.

“Huh, it’s blue.” Poe said at the same time Finn said, “What are you are you waiting for? Call him.”

“No, no, no,” Poe said. “Text him, it’s less desperate.”

Biting her lip her, Rey took out her phone and opened the messenger app. After typing in Ben’s number, her fingers hovered over the onscreen keyboard in hesitation. She thought about it for a long moment before taking the plunge. She showed it to Finn and Poe who nodded in approval and then she clicked send. Barely a minute passed before her phone began to ring.

She threw it at Finn. “I’m not ready!”

“Don’t give it to him!” Poe grabbed the phone out of Finn hands and swiped his finger across the screen, answering it, not before raising it to the highest volume. “Hello?”

“Rey, is that you? Your voice sounds different on the phone.” _Was he teasing her?_

“Yes, this is Rey’s phone. She’s currently…away. So, if ya wanna leave a message then I’ll take one for—Wait, here she is!” He shoved the phone into her chest. “I’m sorry.” He mouthed.  

Rey glared at him as she brought the cellphone up to her ear. “Hey, Ben. Sorry, I was _away_. Did you get my text?”

“Yes, I did. Sorry, I thought this would be easier over the phone rather than text messaging.”

“That’s okay. Would you like to get coffee with me on Wednesday?” Finn grinned, giving her a thumbs up. 

“I hate coffee.”

“Oh.” She deflated only to light up when he spoke again.

“But I like tea.”

“Me too! I’m British!” Finn and Poe facepalmmed. In hushed voices they said the name of their favorite tea shop. “Have you heard of the Takodana Teahouse?”

“No.”

“Well, it’s really cool and they have really good tea. Trust me, I’m British. I know my tea.”

“I’ll trust your opinion then.” Again, she didn’t know if he was teasing her. It was really hard to tell. He was always very serious.

Poe pointed to his watch. She nodded in understanding. “What time?”

“I have to check my schedule. I’ll let you know.”

She nodded even though Ben couldn’t see her. “Sure, that’s fine. Just call me when you know.”

“Okay, bye.”

“Bye!”

The call ended and she smiled at the phone.

Finn leaned over to Poe. “I’ve never seen her act this way over a guy before.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There it is! The moment we've been waiting for! I was always told that the best meetings are the most unexpected ones. 
> 
> Rey's thirst is real and I think I gave her a Ben Solo voice kink. It's almost like her soul is calling out to him, hmmmmmm.
> 
> I'm very sorry for all that dialogue at the end. I really wanted to be more descriptive, but couldn't figure how during that part.


	8. Day Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may have forgotten to tell you guys that I was on vacation last week...
> 
> But fret not! Here is another episode in the soap opera where Ben is married to his job and is considering cheating on it with Rey.
> 
> Also, like two chapters ago we reached 3,000 views and now we're at 4,500 so thank you everyone who took the time to read, comment on, leave kudos, or bookmark this. I never expected this kind of reaction. 
> 
> If you've made it this far then know that I love you.

Ben had given up on his bed, all it did was bring him nightmares. Instead, he had chosen to move his blankets and pillows into the living room, settling himself on the couch and abandoning his bedroom in the process. It didn’t completely block out the nightmares, but they were far less vivid. Unfortunately, he wasn’t aware if it helped with the screaming and it also couldn’t change the fact that he was an idiot.

From the moment his father said her name, Ben knew he was fucked. There was absolutely no way to avoid meeting Rey face-to-face, he analyzed the garage and found no exit points where he could escape unnoticed. He was stuck in front of that shitty car that seemed to be on a path to self-destruction and the only choice he had was to turn around.

The first thing he noticed wasn’t the stained shirt with a pop culture reference he didn’t understand or the hole in her cardigan, but that the overwhelming desire to be with her had finally disappeared. It was as if the force drawing them together against his will was finally satisfied. There was a fleeting thought to rip the stupid glasses from his face and throw everything away for her, but his rational mind stopped him. Instead he made a comment about her reindeer slippers, and Ben couldn’t help but be a little amused when color rose to her cheeks almost instantaneously. 

Teasing her actually felt fun.

He briefly wondered if Rey was unconsciously feeling the same things he was. During his internet research, Ben had read a couple of articles stating that soulmates could sometimes influence each other’s emotions. Perhaps since their bond was only open one way, his would affect her but not the other way around? He couldn’t think of a time where he might have been influenced by her.

In the darkness of his living room, Ben’s eyes drifted to the third addition of the _Rogue One_ series lying on his coffee table and his brows furrowed. Rey was practically obsessed with the franchise and he had blasted through the books in such a short period of time after becoming engrossed in them as well, going as far as to buying the more expensive version of the boxset. Not to mention young adult novels were certainly not his genre of choice.

Just how much of these feelings were because of the soulmate bond? Would he have even given her a second thought if it wasn’t for the bond? In an alternate reality, she could have just been a face on a screen. Handler and Individual would have been the extent of their relationship, exactly how it should have been.

But that universe didn’t exist and Ben wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. He didn’t know what he wanted anymore.

When Rey had launched an interrogation, he lied through his teeth. There was a limit to how long he could keep up the ruse of receiving laser eye surgery, eventually the glasses would have to come off and there was a high possibility of their eyes meeting. The story behind the sunglasses was well thought out. Not so much his other lie.

For most FBI agents, it was considered fine to reveal your occupation to civilians, but it was dangerous for Hux and Ben to do so because they worked undercover missions most of the time. Even if the situation called for an excuse, he really should have chosen a better occupation. Mobile Applications Development was one of the _stupidest_ ideas he had ever come up with. He knew nothing about which apps were which or what their functions were. For fucks sake, Leia had to download the Kindle app for him.

He could already imagine the backlash if Rey ever found out how much he was keeping from her, especially lies of this magnitude. She’d probably never forgive him.

Hell must have frozen over because for once, he was actually relieved to have received a message from Hux. The man had been furious because his Individual had left their phone at home and he couldn’t find them anywhere. Ben was grateful to whoever Poe Dameron was, Hux’s temper tantrum had given him an excuse to leave, saving him from Rey’s onslaught of questions.

Then she had to go and grab his arm.

Ben had always had an aversion to being touched, even more so after the incident, and just like when his mother had hugged him a couple of days ago, his body hadn’t reacted well. She must have noticed his discomfort because she let go and he was able to relax, but only for a miniscule moment, until she asked if he wanted to go out.

Finding a soulmate was never on the forefront of his mind, definitely not one that risked getting his employment terminated, so he was glad when she removed the romantic connotation from her question by asking him to hang out instead. He should have said no, but Ben had agreed before he even knew what he was doing. A part of him wanted to spend time with her at least once, when that was out of his system then he could finally focus on getting his career back on track.

That was the plan, but then that curly-haired bastard put his hand on her shoulder and asked if she was ready to go back to his place. Ben couldn’t believe that in all the days he had spent monitoring her, he had somehow missed the fact that she had a boyfriend. A sensation boiled in the bottom of his stomach. It was something akin to a mixture of rage and another emotion he couldn’t name.

Something inside of him snapped when the man had grinned at him. Ben didn’t know why he said he was going to work on that trash heap of a car with Han and now he was stuck with having to spend time at the Millennium Falcon because his father had looked so excited. Ben didn’t want to take that away from him. How was he going to survive being around Rey at the garage in addition to getting tea with her tomorrow?

Ben wondered how exactly she’d gotten his personal cellphone number. There were only a handful of people who had it, all of which knew better than to just hand it out. His number was listed in the Millennium Falcon’s computer as an emergency contact in case anything happened to his dad so Kaydel could have given it to her. 

He must have been deliberating yesterday’s events for some time because his eyes began to drift shut on their own and stayed closed for about two uninterrupted hours, the nightmare didn’t wake him up until the beginning of the third. It was four in the morning and he wasn’t entirely well-rested, but he had functioned on less in the past. Regardless, the couch was a success.

There were only two options for him to do this early in the morning: go back to sleep or go into work. Seeing that he wasn’t very skilled in doing the former, work was the obvious choice.

Getting ready didn’t take long, all it involved was taking a shower, getting dressed, and eating a bowl of that marshmallow cereal he probably shouldn’t have for breakfast. The bedding in the living room didn’t need tidying up or to be moved back to the bedroom, he was just going to sleep on the couch later anyways so there was no point. Besides, it’s not like he was expecting any visitors anyways.

The security guard greeted him when he entered the building, far too tired to realize he was speaking to Kylo Ren, someone who said guard normally cowered in front of. The office was actually tolerable when it was void of most of the other Handlers. Despite their usually quiet nature, Hux and he were probably the loudest among them due to their constant bickering, Ben knew about the whispers they uttered behind his back.

Kylo Ren. Snoke’s prodigy. Luke Skywalker’s nephew. Master interrogator and supposedly the best field agent in the agency, now tied to a desk job against his will because of a mission that went tragically wrong.

He knew and he didn’t care.

The only thing on his mind right now was the woman who happened to be his assignment and his soulmate at the same time, a fact he was reminded of every time he looked at the generic light blue background on his computer which had been gray less than a week ago.

Less than a week, that’s how long he’s known about her. Before that, Rey Niima was just one of thousands of immigrants turned American citizens that the FBI monitored for a short amount of time in order to deem whether they are a national security threat or not, which was also the reason her file had been so small.

Ben rummaged through his desk and pulled the file out from the drawer he had stuffed it into. Eventually, his reports would be added, but until then, it still only contained a singular page filled with basic information. Unless they were a wanted criminal, it was not considered a priority for the FBI to get details about someone’s life before coming to the United States so there wasn’t anything about Rey’s life in England.

That could be easily rectified.

After calculating the time difference, he picked up his desk phone and punched in the number of the only place he could think of to get some answers. Of course, there was always the option of asking Rey herself, but how do you ask someone you’ve only spoken to in person once to give you their life story?

It only took about two rings for someone to pick up. “British Intelligence. Please state your name and government affiliation.”

“This Agent Kylo Ren from the Federal Bureau of Investig—”  

“Please hold. You are being transferred.”

There was a click and music that sounded vaguely like the James Bond theme began playing. Ben’s jaw tightened, a little more than irritated that he had been cut off, and he was ready to snap the red stapler on his desk in half after five minutes of listening to same song. _Remember the breathing exercises, Ben. Remember the—_ The song entered its sixth minute of repetition. _I fucking hate life._

Holding the stapler in hand, he was fully prepared to give it a painful death when the music finally ended and was replaced with a familiar, aged voice. “I hoped you liked the song, Ben.”

He quickly set the stapler down. “Obi Wan, you old fossil, you’re still alive?”

Benjamin Obi Wan Kenobi was a longtime family friend, his namesake, and he just so happened to be in charge of all of Britain’s Intelligence Agencies. Nobody knew his exact age, only that he was ancient. He had been a mentor to Ben’s grandfather and somehow managed to outlive him. After training Anakin Skywalker, Obi Wan moved onto training Luke.

“I thought Lor San Tekka was supposed to replace you.”

“He was killed a couple years ago. Beheaded,” Obi Wan stated matter-of-factly.

“That’s unfortunate.”

“Yes, very sad story.” There was a pause. “My sources tell me you’re no longer allowed to do field work, Ben. How badly did you mess up?”

“Enough to land me in the hospital, piss off Luke and get reassigned to the Monitoring Department in New York.”

“The Monitoring Department?” Obi Wan chuckled. “That must be torture for you.”

“You have no idea.” Ben leaned back in his chair. “Actually, that’s why I called. I need some help.”

“Oh? Kylo Ren needs _my_ help?” The sarcasm in his voice was strong.

“My Individual comes from England, but I don’t have any information about her during the time she lived there.”

“What’s her name?”

“Rey Niima. She’s nineteen years old and came to America about a year and a half ago.”

“Send me her file and I’ll get my people on it.”

“Alright.” Ben didn’t want to tell him that the file would most likely be useless. “I’ll also send you the stuff from Immigration.”

“Ben,” Obi Wan said. “The Monitoring Department doesn’t usually go this in depth into the backgrounds of the Individuals. Why are you so curious about this girl? Is she dangerous?”

“No, not at all.” Ben couldn’t tell Obi Wan the entire reason why he wanted to learn about Rey’s past. There was a good chance someone was listening in on the call. “If I perform well during my time here then the chances of getting reinstated to field agent are better.”

“I see.” There was skepticism in the old man’s voice. “Very well. It should only take a few hours to compile everything on the girl.”

The call ended and there was nothing left to do now except to wait for both the report and for Rey to wake up. In the meantime, Ben decided to pull the last _Rogue One_ novel from his backpack so he could finish it and slammed it shut upon reading the last chapter. While he knew there was no way it could have been avoided, Ben was still disgruntled by that fact that Jyn and Cassian had met a bitter end. The only consolation was that the two died together after sharing one final kiss.

He was so annoyed at the ending that he finally began to research the social media applications that Rey used in order to get his mind off it. The list he had made a couple of days ago was short, but that didn’t mean he was having an easy time wrapping his head around things. Excluding some minor differences, all of them seemed to have the exact same purpose at their core. There was absolutely no reason to have accounts that spanned multiple platforms.

A ding came from his computer and a notification appeared on the screen telling him that Rey had accessed her email. There was nothing strange there. Her daily routine since she began working at the Falcon involved waking up around seven in the morning, checking her email, and then leaving around eight. Ben wondered how much longer she would be monitored for since she obviously wasn’t a threat.

What would that mean for them? There wasn’t anything in the manual about a Handler interacting with a past Individual.

This internal game of cat and mouse was beginning to tire him. On one hand, the image of being with a soulmate sounded nice. It would mean a normal life with someone who loved you unconditionally. On the other hand, Ben didn’t think that life would suit him. He was an FBI agent, not exactly the safest job to have, and a workaholic. Plus, he’ll be sent around the world on missions once he and Hux return to field work.

There was no time for a soulmate.

He knew this, and yet he couldn’t deny that a part of him wanted to walk straight into the Millennium Falcon, throw his sunglasses to the ground, and stare Rey in the eye.

It all came down to what was more important to him, and he didn’t know the correct answer to that.

The intelligence report from Obi Wan arrived in his email around the time Rey got to work and Ben read it with furrowed brows. According to the report, there was no one named Rey Niima who matched the information he had provided, but there was a girl that was simply named Rey who had been abandoned by her parents around the age of five at a place called Niima Orphanage.

Niima Orphanage’s records described her as a smart, quiet girl who kept to herself unless there was someone in need, which was when she didn’t hesitate to help even if it meant getting into brawls with children who were bigger than her. Unsurprisingly, she would always come out on top.

Something that caught Ben’s attention was the part that said whenever a family would show interest in adopting her, Rey would always reject them because she believed that her parents would come back for her one day. Eventually, she gave up on them and left for America.

Her motivation had been to find a place where she’d belong.

The office was bustling with noise as agents trickled in and got settled. Having been so engrossed in the report, Ben didn’t even notice Hux was missing until eleven when the orange haired man slammed an object in a plastic shopping bag onto his desk.

“You’re late,” Ben said as he tried to hide his surprise. Hux was never late.

Hux gestured to the bag. “I was busy.”

“What is that?”

“My father.” He said this as if it was obvious. Ben craned his neck and sure enough the object within the bag was an urn. “I was watching the bastard burn.”

Ben had always known that Hux had no love for his father and no one could blame him. Brendol Hux was an abusive piece of shit who had tormented Hux throughout his childhood all because he was an illegitimate child. The man had lost the right to look his son in the face long ago, Brendol wasn’t even worthy enough to lick the dirt from the bottom of Hux’s shoe.

Most people would probably be a bit disturbed by someone who was carrying the ashes of a family member around like it was an everyday occurrence, but Ben’s normal meter had been distorted for many years now, especially when it came to Hux. “Did I miss the memo saying it was ‘Bring Your Father to Work Day’? How did you even get that past security anyways?”

 “I told them it was a delivery for Kylo Ren.”  Hux smirked. “The security guard looked like he was about to piss himself and let me through.”

The fact that Hux could use his name to bypass security and walk into the building with his father’s ashes was both amusing and somewhat horrifying at the same time. The FBI really needed to screen its security personnel more.

“So, are you going to stuff him in the back of your closet or something?” There was no way that Hux was going to display the urn anywhere.

“Flushing him down the toilet sounded appealing, but then I’d feel sorry for the sewer animals.” He sneered at the urn. “I can’t believe I have to deal with this garbage.”

 _Garbage._ That gave Ben an idea.

“Hux,” he said. “Did you bring your car?”

“Of course, I did. Public transportation disgusts me.”

“Okay.” Ben turned off his computer, grabbed his backpack and stood up from his chair. “Let’s go get some sandwiches”

“What?” There was no hiding the confusion in Hux’s voice, but Ben was already heading toward the elevator before his partner could ask more.

“Bring your dad too!” He called over his shoulder, causing all the other agents to look up from whatever they were doing.

Hux followed him without another word.

The drive to the sandwich joint took a while and was a sight to behold. Hux with his fiery hair was in the driver’s seat, Ben with his scarred face and sunglasses on the passenger’s side, and Bendol Hux was rolling around in the backseat because neither man felt the need to tie the urn down, thankfully it never opened.

It wasn’t until after they had gotten their wrapped sandwiches that Hux asked, “When are you going to explain why we’re doing this?”

“It’s lunch, genius.” Ben held out his hand, palm up, as they approached the car. “Give me the keys.”

“No!” Hux blanched. “I’m not letting you drive! You just had laser eye surgery!”

Ben repeated his words, but a bit more sternly. “Give. Me. The. Keys.”

Despite his concerns, Hux handed over the keys with a grim look on his face. “A car crash is certainly a nice way to scatter my father’s ashes since our body parts would be scattered alongside with him.”

The further they drove away from the city, the more Hux’s eyes narrowed.

“Here we are,” Ben said as he parked in front of a familiar place, but one he had never visited before. “Welcome to Jakku Junkyard.”

“Why are we here, Ren?”

Ben unbuckled his seatbelt and opened his door. “Because you’re going to chuck your father into a place that’s suited for him.”

Hux’s face was blank at first, trying to digest what Ben had just said, but then it grew into a smile. “Let’s do it.”

Thankfully the owner, Unkar Plutt, wasn’t around to question what two grown men with an urn and some sandwiches were doing at his junkyard in the middle of the day. It didn’t take long to find a suitable pile of broken down vehicles and machinery for Bendol’s final resting place. The urn made a satisfying noise as it shattered opened after Hux threw against the car at the top of the pile and as the ashes rained down, Hux yelled, “Fuck you, you sorry excuse for a father! I hope you rot in Hell!”

Afterwards, the two of them were perched on the hood of Hux’s car eating the sandwiches they had bought earlier.

“Thank you for this, Ren.” Although his words were sincere, it sounded like it physically hurt Hux to say them.

Ben shrugged. “You called my mom the other day. I guess we do actually give a shit about each other on some level.”

“Perhaps,” Hux said as he flicked away a piece of fallen, shredded lettuce that had landed on his pants and let out a noise of disgust. “If this keeps going on then pretty soon we’ll be giving each other nicknames.”

“Whatever you say, Armie.”

“Shut up, Benji.”

The two of them fell into silence as they continued to eat their lunches.

They were halfway done when Hux solemnly said. “I’m sorry, Ren.”

His words caught Ben by surprise and he almost choked on the last bite he had taken. “For what?”

“It should have been me.” Hux’s blue eyes looked him in the face. “I should have been the one strapped to that chair, not you.”

It disturbed Ben to see Hux, who was normally too full of himself to care about other people, look so apologetic. “You idiot.”

Hux must have not expected that reaction because his eyebrows rose and his mouth opened slightly “Huh?”

“Either one of us could have ended up in that chair, but I was the one who insisted I took point. We argued about it for ages, remember? Hux, I knew the risks going in and I paid the price.”

“But I—”

“I’m glad it wasn’t you.” Ben finished before frowning. “Maker, we’re acting far too civil with each other for my liking.”

“Agreed,” Hux replied and then held up his sandwich. “We still have half to go so might as well talk now since we aren’t ripping each other’s heads off. Afterwards, we can forget this ever happened.”

Ben nodded and said, “A girl asked me to get tea with her tomorrow.”

Hux spat out the bite he had just taken and began to laugh. “ _You?_ Has she seen your face?”

“Of course, she has.” At least, Rey had seen all the parts Ben had wanted her to see. “She’s has a boyfriend so I don’t know what to make of it.”

“Kill him, you’ve had training.” Hux’s advice was one hundred percent serious.

The idea sounded appealing. Ben pondered it for a moment before shaking his head. “No, too many people would notice if he goes missing.” Getting charged with murder wasn’t exactly at the top of his bucket list either.

His reply was met with a scoff. “Boring. You’re just going to have to convince her that you’re better than the other guy.”

“I’m not even sure if I want to date her or not.” Ben said, but then shortly after he added. “Hypothetically speaking, how do I do that?”

“You could try smiling for starters. I’m pretty sure you need to practice since your face probably doesn’t remember how to.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Ren, I haven’t seen you smile since before the incident.”

Had it really been that long?

“Maybe I just haven’t found anything smile-worthy in a while.” The image of Rey from yesterday flashed through his mind, but he pushed it away. “Besides, that’s not something I need to practice.”

“Oh, yeah?” Hux turned to face him. “Go ahead then. Smile.”

Ben rolled his eyes at such a ridiculous request, Hux made it sound like he was dysfunctional. A smile was a natural expression, there was absolutely no reason he couldn’t form one on command. All the muscles in Ben’s face began to spasm as the corners of his mouth rose upwards, he could feel his lips shaking uncontrollably, and he was forced to stop. His face relaxed into its usual stoic expression.

“By the Maker, you are pathetic,” Hux said, astonished by how badly Ben had failed at such a simple thing. “When are you meeting her?”

“I’m not sure yet. I was supposed to tell her when I was free.”

“Give her a time and practice until then. Maybe you’ll be able to produce something with some semblance to a smile.”

If someone had told him that one day he would receive dating advice from Hux, Ben would have laughed in their face. Might as well go all in. “I need you to drive me to my dad’s auto shop.”

Hux frowned. “That’s a strange change in topic.”

“She works there.”

Hux threw the last bit of his sandwich into his mouth and slid off the car. “What are we waiting for, you dumbass? Let’s go steal your girl from her boyfriend.”

Ben wanted to tell Hux that Rey wasn’t some possession to be owned or won, but the man was already behind the steering wheel before he even had the chance to say anything. He also wanted to tell him that it was against the law to run three stop signs, but Hux seemed to be completely hell-bent on getting Ben to the Millennium Falcon as soon as possible.

The car made an abrupt stop in front of the garage and Ben got out as soon as possible while Hux remained seated. “We really shouldn’t be law enforcement.”

“Probably not,” Hux replied. “I’ll stay here. We have to get back to work eventually. Luckily, the pilot is doing a round trip flight to Maine. He should be back early tomorrow.”

Kaydel was at her usual spot at the front desk and smiled at him when he walked in. “Hey, Ben. Are you here to work on the car? Lando managed to get the parts for the engine.”

“Not today, Kaydel.” Ben told her, trying his hardest to focus at the task on hand and not stare at her blonde hair. The range of shades hair came in still amazes him. “I’m need to talk to Rey. Is she in the back?”

“She should be. Han’s letting her work on a Jeep that’s had its fuel tank completely dislodged.”

“Thanks,” Ben told her and stepped behind the counter.

“Ben,” she called out to him just as he walked through the door that lead to the garage. “Good luck.”

He stared at her wordlessly and sorted through every memory he had of his time at the Falcon since Rey arrived, searching for any indication that he had slipped up and gave Kaydel reason to believe that their relationship was actually more than he was letting on.

“I overheard Han and Leia talking about it.” She explained, realizing what he was doing and shrugged her shoulders. “Why do you think I asked Rey to come pick up her paycheck on her day off? It’s because you were here.”

Her cunningness didn’t shock him in the slightest. After all, Kaydel had spent years by his mother’s side. What did disturb him was the fact that everyone seemed so invested in his non-existent love life. “Don’t tell anybody.”

She nodded.

When he walked into the garage, Han was the first one to notice and flashed him a cocky grin. “I knew you couldn’t wait to get started.” His father gestured to the car on the other side of garage, which was now missing one door and had another that was barely hanging on by its hinges. “We should probably work on the frame first and then the engine. Lando said he knows a guy called DJ who’s confident that he can get us the correct material for the upholstery.” 

“Lando must really be bored with dog breeding,” Ben said, his eyes darting around the room for Rey. The only other person he could find besides Han was Rose, standing he assumed beside the Jeep Kaydel had mentioned earlier, its hot pink paint almost made his eyes bleed. He was about to do a second sweep when he noticed a pair of feet sticking out from beneath the vehicle. “You know what, dad? Let’s get started another day.”

“What?” Han seemed truly taken aback by his suggestion until he followed Ben’s gaze and began to chuckle. “Just call me later and tell me when you’re free. It’s not like the car’s going anywhere.” He clapped Ben on the back hard enough to make him stumble a couple steps forward. “Go get her, tiger.”

Rose’s eyes widened when she saw him approach, but somehow she knew what he was coming over for. “Rey, I think it’s time we take a break,” she said as he stopped in front of her and gave him a small wave that he returned.

“No, I think I can get it this time.” Came Rey’s response from underneath the fluorescent colored car, he envied everyone who could not see the monstrosity that was that shade of pink.

“Rey.” Rose looked at him from the corner of her eyes and then smiled sweetly at him when she noticed he could tell. “I _really_ think we should take a break. Something important just came up.”

“Just another second. Almost there.”

Rose swiftly kicked Rey’s feet.

“What the heck, Rose?” She tried to blindly kick back as revenge and failed. “You don’t have to rush me. I’m sure whatever it is, it can wait until I tighten this bolt.”

Despite how amusing her obliviousness to his presence was, Ben couldn’t wait any longer. “Hello, Rey.”

A loud thump followed by a cry of pain and a series of curses came from beneath the Jeep. “Ouch! Shite! Damn it!” Slowly, Rey slid out into the open with one hand on her forehead, which was growing increasing red where she had hit it against the undercarriage of the car. “Hi, Ben.”

“I’ll just leave you two here then,” Rose said as she walked away and went to work on a perfectly fine car near Han who was currently being handed an obviously blank sheet of paper from Kaydel.  All of them were doing a horrible job pretending to do something in order to hide the fact that they were eavesdropping.

Rey hurried to her feet, not even giving him a chance to offer her his hand to pull her up, and brushed her hands on the back of her jumpsuit. “What can I do for you, today, sir?” She snapped her mouth shut as soon as she realized what she had just said. “I mean—”

“Your lunch hour.”

That caught her off guard. “What?”

“Whenever your lunch hour is, is when we can go get tea tomorrow. Doesn’t matter when.” Ben said seriously as if he was on a mission. He silently thanked the flexible hours Handlers had, which didn’t really matter in this case since he was going to be with his Individual anyways.

She stared at him wide eyed. “I only get thirty minutes for lunch though.”

“Dad!” Ben called out over his shoulder. “Can you give Rey more time for her lunch break tomorrow?”

“What’s that?” Han's voice yelled back. “Rey needs a three hour lunch break tomorrow? Sure!”

Ben turned back to Rey, who still looked like she was having trouble following what was happening. “That’s settled then. I’ll come pick you up and then you can take us to wherever that teahouse is.”

“It’s called Takodana,” was the only thing she said in return.

“See you tomorrow, Rey.”

“Okay.”

Every member of their audience gave him a thumbs up as he walked out the door and when he got into Hux’s car, the first thing that came out of his partner’s mouth was, “Did you fuck it up?”

“No.”

“Wow, that’s surprising. I was sure something was going to go wrong,” Hux muttered and for that comment Ben had Hux drive him home since he didn’t feel like going to back to the office, he could easily monitor Rey from home.

He knew someone was in his apartment before he had even opened the door.

The faint footprint on the tiled floor outside of his door didn’t match any of his shoes and was pointed going inwards. With his firearm privileges being revoked, there wasn’t currently anything on him that he could use as a weapon.

He turned the key, opening the door just like any other day, and set his backpack down. As naturally as possible, Ben reached into his coat closet and grabbed the aluminum bat that stood next to the forgotten mirror he had taken off the wall last week.

The light in his living room was on and he prepared himself for a fight.

Only to stop short when he recognized the man who was sitting on his couch with neatly folded blankets on the cushion next to them.

“Well, if it isn’t my naughty, naughty nephew.”

“Luke.” Ben sighed and lowered the bat. “You should have called first like a normal person.”

Luke shrugged and stood up. “And you should know that most that calls are monitored.”

“What are you doing here?” Ben deadpanned, ignoring the not-so-subtle jab at his current assignment.

“Oh, Snoke’s planning a coup and my nephew’s soulmate just happens to be his Individual. Same old, same old,” Luke said casually. “And also to say ‘hi’ so hi.”

“Did mom tell you that you that?” Ben paused. “Not the Snoke part, the soulmate part.”

“I know what you meant,” Luke replied. “No, Leia didn’t tell me. You monitor people for a living, Ben, but who do you think monitors you?”

Ben groaned. “You have got to be fucking kidding me.”

“You’ve been looking up a lot of things about colors, Ben. Not to mention all the stuff about that _Rogue One_ series that Rey seems to love so much and I know you wouldn’t normally give a damn about.”

“And why is it that I’m being monitored?”

“Kylo Ren has always been a little over the top, actually a lot over the top, but I worry that Ben Solo might be a bit broken after what happened.”

“You mean after I was tortured.” Everyone who knew about it, including himself, had always skirted around the topic and he was getting sick of it. “As you can see, I’m in one piece so stop being my stalker.”

“You and I both know that’s a lie, but you’re getting better at telling them.” Luke went into the kitchen and grabbed himself a cup of water.

“Make yourself at home,” Ben said emotionlessly.

“I’ll get back to the soulmate thing later.”

“Hurray…”

Luke set down the glass on the counter. “I need your help with Snoke. He’s planning something. Now, I know you worship the ground he walks upon and you think that I’m paranoid, but I have good reason to—”

“I believe you.”

“What?”

Ben set down his bat on the counter next to the glass. “Snoke asked me to interrogate someone the other day and I felt like something was off about him. Something was telling me to be wary around him.”

“You should be. He’s dangerous and he’s probably been planning this for years.” Luke put his prosthetic hand on his shoulder while removing the sunglasses from his face with his good hand and stared him straight in the eye. “Ben, Snoke was the one who was responsible for your capture. He wanted you to mess up that mission and get transferred to New York so that he could convince you to support him. I wanted to you send somewhere else, but I couldn’t draw too much suspicion. People would question why I didn’t trust Snoke with you.”

There was silence in the room, silence that was only broken when Ben grabbed the bat from the counter and threw it against the wall in anger, leaving a good sized hole in its wake. It all made sense and despite all their differences, Ben knew that his uncle would never lie to him. With his fists clenched together, he turned back to Luke. “What do you need me to do?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, this fic was kind of serious in the beginning and now we have FBI agents throwing what is technically a dead body into a junkyard.
> 
> Everyone ships it now and no one is afraid to hide it.
> 
> I want to write a Smuggler!Ben AU, but there's a notebook on my desk with about 25 pages of notes for this fic so I am determined to finish this first.


	9. Day Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The day of the 'not date' has arrived, and I love how everyone has been calling it that.
> 
> I was worried that this wasn't going to come out very good, but then I remembered that Ben and Rey are weird people.
> 
> It really limiting to write something when one person can't see the other's eyes. Why I do this to myself?
> 
> Huge thanks to my sister who stays up with me until 1 A.M. editing this :D

The sun wasn’t even up when Rey got out of bed and sped through the apartment towards Finn’s room, which was really just a portion of the living room sectioned off by a curtain. When she first moved in, they flipped a coin to see who would get the actual bedroom and Rey won. At first, she felt a little guilty for kicking Finn out of his room, but he assured her it was okay.

She yanked the curtain open, revealing Finn who was sleeping peacefully. Without hesitating, Rey plopped down onto his bed, it was just a mattress on the floor, and yelled his name, “Finn!”

Finn’s eyes shot open immediately and he bolted upright into a sitting position, crashing his forehead into Rey’s. They both cried out in pain.

Recovering from the impact, Finn asked, “What’s wrong?” Even in the dark she could see him staring at her with worried eyes. “Is it the toaster again?” Then his eyes widened. “Oh, god! We’re going to die! Poe’s not here and we don’t have access to the fire extinguisher!”

“Nothing’s on fire! Why does everyone assume that?” She asked incredulously, pushing his shoulders down when he tried to get up.

“I don’t know, maybe because we’ve had four fires the past year!” Finn answered sarcastically. “At this point, I’m surprised Poe doesn’t have a closet full of extinguishers.” 

“Enough about the extinguishers. There’s no fire!” Rey stared him straight in the eye and lowered her voice. “I don’t know what to do.”

“You could go back to sleep for starters.” He yawned. Noticing that she was chewing on her lip, he sighed. “Okay, what’s up?”

She fell back onto his bed, stared up at the ceiling and said, “ _Lunch_.”

He let out a gasp. “Your ‘not date’ is today. I totally forgot.”

Rey tugged on his arm. “Finn, help me.”

“What are you going to wear?” He looked down at her. “Please don’t wear the TARDIS shirt.”

For that, she slapped his thigh. “I’m not going to make that mistake again! I love it, but it’s never seeing the outside world again, ever.”

Finn held up his finger. “Lightbulb!” He paused for dramatic effect. “You need a new outfit.”

“I do?”

“Yeah.” He grabbed his phone and looked at the time. “DJ just about done setting up shop. Get dressed and we can see if he’s got clothes this time.” Then he muttered under his breath, “Stupid rotating market.”

Rey was fully aware that buying stuff out of the back of car sounded kind of sketchy, but DJ had a wide variety of goods, ranging from food to clothes to electronics and even furniture. Not to mention, his prices were unbeatable and if he didn’t have it, he could acquire it for you as long as you didn’t ask any questions.

DJ had a sly grin on his face when he saw them approaching. “Well, if it isn’t my two most loyal customers. What can I do for you on this f-f-fine New York morning?” 

“We’re here for the goods.” Finn’s voice was dead serious.  She hated how much that sounded like a drug deal was about to go down.

A chuckle escaped DJ’s lips and he gestured all around him. “You’re going to have to be more specific, Big F. As you can see, I have a t-t-ton of products.”

“Clothes. Rey needs clothes,” Finn elaborated.

“No need to worry.” DJ pulled out two large boxes from his car and set them down. “These just came in. No doubt Sunshine will find something she likes.”

“Thanks DJ,” Rey said as she crouched down to search through one of the boxes while Finn tackled the other.

After a while, Finn asked. “You find anything?”

She shook her head. “No.”

The sun was barely starting to rise when a familiar car stopped nearby. “Finn? Rey?” Poe called out through the window, then got out and jogged over to them. “What are you guys doing out here?” He looked down at his watch. “At six in the morning?”

“Finn said I needed something to new to wear for my ‘not date’ with Ben.”

“So you’re shopping at _DJ’s_?”

“Hey, Flyboy,” DJ greeted from where he sat on a fold out chair with his feet propped up on a plastic crate. “Where’s Roundy?”

“In the car. He’s sleeping.”

“Rey!” Finn shouted. “I found something!” He held up a floral summer dress with a ribbon around the waist. Rey didn’t know if something like that suited her, she wasn’t very comfortable wearing overly feminine clothing. A dress of that length would probably be a bad idea since it was fall now. Even so, it did look very pretty.

 _“NO!”_ Poe yelled suddenly. “Do _NOT_ get that dress.”

Rey and Finn looked at the dress in confusion. “Why?” They asked in unison.

“It’s _chartreuse_ ,” he spat out the word.

It took Rey a moment to figure out that Poe was referring to the color of the dress, but she still couldn’t understand what was wrong with it. Clearly, he was against them buying it for some reason. “What’s chartreuse?”

“A color. An ugly color. One of the ugliest colors in the world.” Poe looked like the color brought him pain. “Be thankful that you guys can’t see it.”

Finn’s gaze traveled from the dress to Poe and then back to the dress. “What makes it so ugly?”

“If vomit was a color, that’d be it.”

The dress quickly fell to the ground as Finn released his grip on it. “Ew.” He wiped his hands on his pants. “Gross.”

“I t-t-think Sunshine will look good in anything,” DJ said, obviously trying to secure a sale, and popped a potato crisp into his mouth. Rey hadn’t even noticed that he had a bag of crisps or where he’d pulled it out from.

“Which means there’s something in her closet that’ll do.” Poe replied and turned to them. “I’ll meet you back at the Raddus.”

“Wait,” Finn shouted after Poe as he began to walk to his car, leaving them behind. “You’re making us walk?”

“I need to park my car! Plus, you guys might wake Beebee!”

Rey and Finn grumbled the entire way home, cursing a certain pilot who had left them out in the cold. Poe wasn’t even fazed by the glare they sent his way as soon as they arrived on their floor.

“You can be a cheeky git sometimes, you know that right?” Rey’s insult only caused him to grin. She rolled her eyes and unlocked the door.

Finn shoved past her, heading straight for her room, and was already rummaging through her closet when they walked in. “Hole, hole, old, another hole. I don’t even know what this is,” he muttered as he tossed all the rejects behind him. She and Poe watched in fascination, Finn seemed to be taking this even more seriously than Rey.

“You should probably take a shower first,” Poe told her, sidestepping a jumper that Finn threw over his shoulder. “No offense, but you really smell like motor oil.”

“I can’t. The water got shut off yesterday. Finn forgot to pay it.”

Their conversation was irrupted by a groan. “Rey, you have nothing worthy of an event of this caliber!”

Poe sighed. “That’s it, we’re going to my place.”

“Why?” Rey asked.

“Because I have a working shower.” He paused, looked around the room and made a face. “And this place makes me sad.” There was no arguing with that, some days it made her sad too.

“Alright, let’s go.”

Unlike their apartment, Poe’s was one of the many newly renovated apartments in the building. It was larger as well, with a guest room that he’d let them stay in when their place was being fumigated. The bugger even had _two_ bathrooms.

“Wait here.” Poe told them and went into his room.

Rey and Finn nodded and stood silently in the middle of his living room, only moving when they were sure he was out of sight. They always snooped through Poe’s things when they were in his apartment. It was wrong and they knew it, but there was no denying that it was exciting. Poe always brought back interesting trinkets from his trips so boundaries be damned.

Wandering over to the entertainment center, she skimmed through the selves looking for anything new. Her eyes paused on the triangular-shaped shadow box. It’d always been there and it struck her as weird the Poe had possession of his mother’s flag when his dad was still very much alive. Rey’s interest shifted to a shelf that had a bunch of different pictures from before she knew him. There was pictures of his family at their orange farm in Florida, his time during the Navy, and a couple of Tallie. But Rey’s favorite was the one of Poe and Tallie holding a baby Beebee. Poe had told them that they’d affectionately called him “Spud” since at the time he looked like a tiny potato.

Her eyes drifted to another frame, only this one didn’t hold a picture but a diploma. “Did you know that Poe went to uni?”

Finn looked up from where he was cycling through Poe’s video game collection. “No. I thought he joined the Navy right after high school. What kind of university would accept Poe?”

“The U.S. Naval Academy, you dummy. His degree is in Aerospace engineering.”

 “Why is he an airline pilot when he could be making bank?”

They heard footsteps coming down the hall and scrambled to look as natural as possible. Finn put away all the games and jumped onto the couch while Rey pretended to take pictures of Beebee. Poe looked at them with skepticism when he entered the room, but apparently decided it wasn’t worth the effort to say anything.

He walked over to her and handed her a bundle of clothes. “Here, I think these will look nice on you. They were Tallie’s, but they didn’t fit her. I also remember Jessika saying they looked good in gray.”

Rey took the sacred clothes from his hands, surprised that Poe hadn’t forgotten the fact she couldn’t see color this time. “Thanks, but are you sure Tallie won’t mind?”

“It’s fine.” Poe smiled at her. “Now, go take a shower, Stinky. There’s shampoo in there.”

“You know,” Finn said as she made her way to the bathroom. “We’re like her fairy godmothers.”

Once she was in the bathroom, she put the clothes down on the counter and began to sniff the bottles of shampoo. The one that smelled like berries had been her first choice until she turned it around and read that it was meant for dogs. She settled for the one that said ‘For Men” instead. A commotion came from the living room just as she was about to take her shirt off.

“Finn, what are you doing in my refrigerator?”

“If she gets to use your shower then I get to use your fridge!”

“That’s not how _this_ works!”

Their bickering made her laugh. The three of them had an odd friendship, but she was grateful for it and couldn’t imagine it any other way.

The towels in Poe’s bathroom were some of the softest things she’s ever felt and when she died, she wanted to be buried in one. Sadly, drowning in their comfort wasn’t something she could do forever. Tallie’s clothes were simple. A plain shirt, some skinny jeans without any holes, and a jacket to top it off. They were nothing like that dress Finn had chosen out earlier.

She put her semi-dry hair into a bun and slipped back into her worn out shoes. Finn and Poe were sitting on the couch when she stepped back into the room. Finn was eating something out of a Tupperware and Poe looked a little pissed. “That was supposed to be my dinner.”

“Well, now it’s my breakfast.”

“Guys, I look nice and all.” They turned to look at her and Rey gestured to the outfit. “But I still have to actually work before lunch. I’m just going to get filthy again.”

“I got that covered,” Poe said and whipped out his phone. “I’ll just shoot Kaydel a text saying that Sunshine is forbidden from getting dirty today.”

Rey raised an eyebrow. “Why you have Kaydel’s number?

“Because I’m listed as your primary emergency contact since I can drive and there’s a chance she might not be by the Falcon’s phone if you’re ever in the middle of being crushed by a car.”

“How thoughtful?” Rey replied with uncertainty.

A ding came from his phone and he quickly read the message. “Okay, we’re good to go. Now, off to work with you!” The two of them began to shove her out the front door and into the hallway.

“Oi, stop!” Rey protested. “I don’t even have my backpack with me! It has all my things in it!”

Finn disappeared for a second and then reappeared only to shove her backpack into her hands. “Here you go!”

She broke from their hold as soon as they reached the stairs. “I don’t want you two to push me down four flights of stairs.” After readjusting her jacket, she sighed. “Thank you for helping me.”

They both grinned at her and spoke at the same time, “Anytime.”

When Rey got off the bus and stepped into the Millennium Falcon, Kaydel immediately blocked her path to the locker room. “No cars for you. You’re going to learn the administrative side of things today.”

“But I’m a mechanic!” Rey exclaimed. “I’ll just install windshield wipers again, that’s not a lot of work.”

“No.” Kaydel said, immediately shooting Rey’s idea down. “I need someone to be able to take over when I’m gone.”

“Oh shite, Kaydel. I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

“About what?”

“ _That you’re dying!_ ”

Kaydel looked at her with bugged eyes. “Rey, I am _NOT_ dying. What I meant is I need someone to know to how run this place if I’m sick or taking a day off. Han and Rose are useless when it comes to stuff like this. So, I’m taking you on as my student since you seem competent enough.”

Rey didn’t know if she should take that as a compliment or an insult, but regardless she resigned herself to her fate.

The amount of things Kaydel was responsible for was jaw-dropping. Some of her duties were easier than others. Learning how to hustle suppliers into giving them quality goods for cheap was fun and Kaydel showed her the secret safe behind a portrait of Chewie I in the office.

“Remember,” Kaydel said as she was teaching Rey about dealing with customers, “Service with a smile, but if they’re being dicks then it’s okay to sneer when they aren’t looking.”   

As it got closer it got to noon, she couldn’t focus on anything Kaydel was saying, her attention was divided between the door and the clock.

Eventually, the door opened and Ben walked in, still wearing those sodding sunglasses. He greeted Kaydel first and then turned to Rey. “You ready to go?”

“Yeah.” Her voice was more confident than she expected. “Don’t you want to say ‘hi’ to your dad first?”

Ben shook his head. “He must be working hard if he isn’t here to bother us.”

She said bye to Kaydel and followed Ben to a very expensive looking car. “ _This_ is your car?” 

“No, I don’t own a car,” Ben answered, unlocking the doors. “I stole the keys from my co-worker.”

“You did?”

“Don’t worry about it.” He made it sounds like committing grand theft auto wasn’t a big deal.

Rey was about to get into the passenger seat when she looked at him. “Should you be the one driving? You just had laser eye surgery.”

“Do you have a license?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I don’t even know how to drive,” Rey admitted, totally aware of the irony. She worked on cars, but couldn’t drive one herself.

“Then I drive and you give me directions.”

Rey punched in the address into her GPS and looked around for an auxiliary cable. Feeling Ben’s eyes on her, she shut the glove compartment and leaned back into her seat. She settled for raising the volume on her phone.

The ride to the teahouse was quiet, but it didn’t feel awkward. It was a comfortable silence, only to be broken when they arrived.  

“This place has some of the best tea I’ve ever had,” Rey said enthusiastically as they got out of the car and walked towards the shop. He stepped forward and opened the door for her. “Thank you.”

Ever since Poe and Finn introduced it to her, Takodana was Rey’s absolute favorite place to get boba milk tea. Nowhere else could compete. The shop was never overly busy, didn’t look too modern, and had plants everywhere you looked. The best part of it all were the prices, perfectly affordable for people like Finn and her.

It was easy to tell that Ben was examining the shop and she was about ask what he thought of it when a familiar, booming voice echoed throughout the room. _“BEN SOLOOOOO!_ ”

There weren’t many customers in the teahouse, but every single one of them stopped what they were doing to look in Rey and Ben’s direction. The attention made her slightly uncomfortable, yet Ben remained unfazed. “Maz?”

Maz Kanata was the owner of the Takodana Teashop and one of the shortest people Rey had ever met, not to mention one of the toughest. She could be sweet when she wanted to, but didn’t hesitate to call people out on their shite. Rey’s only seen it happen once, to Finn, but otherwise Maz was extremely fond of their little group.

She strolled up to them and stood in front of Ben. Rey would have laughed at their height difference if it wasn’t for the fact that she was completely confused.

“I thought you own a bar in California.”

Maz snorted. “That place burned down years ago.” She turned her attention to Rey. “Nice to see you again, Rey.”

Rey smiled at her. “Hello, Maz.”

“You don’t have to say my name like that every time you see me,” Ben deadpanned.

“It still takes less time than saying your full name.” Maz looked at Rey and pointed a thumb in his direction. “Did you know this boy has four last names?”

” _Four?_ ”

“Ridiculous, isn’t it?” Maz let out a small laugh. “Ben, my boy, I haven’t seen you since you had that assignment in California. I remember that night when that Hux boy challenged you to a drinking competition and you—”

“Maz,” he said firmly.

“No need to be so grouchy, Benjamin.” It was amusing how the woman wasn’t afraid to tease a man who towered over her. “I’ll be behind the counter when you’re ready, but I already know what Rey’s going to order.”

Once Maz walked away, Rey asked, “How do you two know each other?”

“She’s known my dad for ages.” Ben said as he moved to study the menu. “What’s bubble milk tea?” His brows furrowed in confusion and he turned to her. “Is it carbonated?”

“You’ve never had boba before?” She was shook, it was such a big trend.

He didn’t answer.

“Well, you’ve been missing out,” Rey told him. “First off, it’s not carbonated. It’s just flavored milk tea with tapioca pearls in it.”

He cocked his head. “This was not the type of tea I was expecting.”

“If you don’t want to try it then we can go somewhere else.”

“No, I’m willing to try it. After all, you told me you were a tea expert, being British and all.”

She mentally faceplammed. That was not her finest moment.

Instead beating herself up, she decided to embrace her British roots and make sure he got the best tea New York had to offer. Before she could offer her expertise, he spoke again, “What do you recommend? I’m completely lost here.”

“My favorite is the Earl Gray, but the Jasmine Green and Taro flavors are really good too.” Much to her surprise, Ben was listening very intently. “You can never go wrong with the simple Bubble Tea. That’s just Black Tea. And the tapioca pearls are optional, but I’m particularly fond of them.”

He ended up choosing Earl Grey with boba.

“I’ll pay,” Ben told her, already pulling out his wallet.

“No, I will.” She insisted, thanking the Maker under her breath for Maz’s reasonable prices. “I’m the one who dragged you here.”

“I’m pretty sure I’m here of my own free will.”

She huffed “We could split it?”

“That sounds reasonable.”

Maz was watching their exchange with an amused look on her face. “You two go find a seat. I’ll bring your order out in a second.”

Rey was confused since Maz never brought the drinks to the table. “You don’t have to do that, Maz. I can get them.”  

Maz shook her head. “No way, kiddo. I want to see Benny experience this for the first time.” Rey could hear her snickering as they made their way to a nearby table.

Neither of them spoke while they waited for their drinks, Ben looked like he was examining the room again while Rey wrung her hands since she didn’t know what to do with them, taking her phone out right now seemed kind of rude. Eventually, Ben brought his focus back to her and she knew she needed to say _something_. “What university did you go to?”

“MIT.”

Rey blinked. “That’s impressive.”

“It was easier to get admitted when I went.” It was hard to tell if he was being dismissive of praise or being humble. “My dad said you’re a student.”

 _A student_. Suddenly, she felt very young and remembered the man sitting in front of her was at least ten years her senior. “Yeah, I’m almost done getting an Associate’s Degree at the community college,” she told him. “But now I’m not so sure. I like working on cars more than what I’m studying right now.”

Maybe that had been oversharing, but if it was then Ben didn’t seem to mind. Instead, he surprised her by saying, “You should do what makes you happy.” Her eyes widened. “Finish your degree so you have a back-up plan and continue being a mechanic. Don’t pass up on the things you like.”

She quirked an eyebrow. “Do you like your job, Ben?”

There was no hesitation in his voice. “I love my job.”

Maz came by and set their drinks down in front of them, but she didn’t leave. Both she and Rey were staring at Ben as he rotated his tea in his hand, probably eyeing the boba skeptically. He must have sensed what they were doing because he looked up. “What?”

“Try it,” Rey said with a smile, and there was no doubt in her mind that he rolled his eyes at her. Even so, he lifted his cup to his face and took a big sip through the straw.

And started choking.

“You’re supposed to chew it!” Rey exclaimed as his choking turned into coughing.

“You shouldn’t have to chew a drink!” He said loudly as he got himself under control.

Rey felt bad that she began to laugh, but it was the first time she had ever seen him so emotional and all because of tea.

Maz gently patted his arm. “Ben, your age is showing.” That only made Rey laugh more.

“I’m sorry,” Rey told him as soon as her laughter died down and Maz had left. She wiped a tear from her eye. “That was—”

“A disaster.” He finished for her, running a hand through his hair.

She nodded, still grinning, and took out her phone. “I’m just going to take a picture of mine and send it my friends as torture. Is that okay?”

“Go ahead. I’ll figure out how to drink this without dying in the meantime.”

Rey snapped a quick picture of her drink and sent it to both Finn and Poe with the caption, _I think I almost killed him._

“Did you use Snapchat just now?” He asked.

“Yeah,” She set her phone down on the table. “Do you have one?”

“No, I don’t have any social media.” It looked like he was getting the hang of drinking boba. At least, she wouldn’t have to perform the Heimlich maneuver on him anytime soon. “I only have the Kindle app on my phone. There’s also pictures of my mom’s cats and Chewie III, but that’s it.”

“Can I see them?”

He nodded and unlocked his phone before handing it to her. When he said he only had the Kindle app, he wasn’t joking. The home screen was almost empty and only had the necessary icons for day to day life, the other default apps were probably in a folder somewhere untouched and forgotten.

Every single one of the pictures made her coo, especially ones that had all three of the animals in them. Ben explained that the cats’ names were Artoo and Threepio and that he only had the photos because his parents always sent them to him. She was smiling as she swiped through his camera roll until she reached a certain one.

It was a selfie of Han, giving a thumbs up, and beside him was Ben in a hospital bed with a bandage covering most of his face. The eye that was visible was bruised and tightly shut. You would’ve thought he was sleeping except for the fact that he was flipping off the camera. It must’ve been taken after the accident Rose told her about, the one that gave him his scar. Rey knew better than to ask about it when they didn’t know each well, but she couldn’t deny that she was curious.

His phone began to vibrate in her hands, surprising her and she accidently swiped to another picture. A barrage of texts were being sent by a person named Hux, a name she was beginning to recognize, and he seemed furious.

_YOU TOOK MY FUCKING CAR???  BRING IT BACK ASSHOLE!!_

_ANSWER YOUR DAMN WORK PHONE! MY GUY’S CELL IS OFF!_

_KYLO REN, I WILL END YOU._

“I think your coworker is trying to get a hold of you.” She gingerly handed him the phone back. “It looks like he needs you for something.”

Ben looked at his phone for one second and unceremoniously shoved it in his pocket. “He’ll be fine.”

“What’s Kylo Ren?” She asked. “Is that a nickname?”

For some reason, her question gave him pause. Then he cleared his throat and said slowly, “Those are my middle names.”

“You have _more_ names?” Rey was amazed and kind of jealous, she only had one. Well, there was her fake one as well. “What’s your full name then?”

“Benjamin Kylo Ren Amidala Skywalker Organa Solo.” It was a miracle he wasn’t out of breath.

“Wow.” Rey sat back in her chair. “Are you royalty? You have as many names as the Queen.”

“No, not royalty. Just a guy with insane parents.” She chuckled. His parents were certainly special. “Ben is just fine.” He set his drink down. “Can I ask you something this time?”

“You just did, but go ahead.” It wasn’t until then that she realized that she’d been bombarding him with questions since the moment they met.

After taking the final sip of his drink, he asked, “Is your boyfriend okay with us having lunch together?”

“ _My boyfriend_?” Her voice rose in pitch. 

“The man who was with you at the Falcon.” Poe had been with her, but she didn’t understand why Ben thought he was her _boyfriend_. “He answered your phone when I called you.” _Oh God, did he notice that I smell like a man_? “Also, he’s sitting right over there.” Ben pointed to a table on the far side of the room.

Sure enough, there was Finn and Poe obviously watching them. They were wearing disguises, probably courtesy of DJ. Finn was wearing a backwards cap, basketball jersey, shorts and a hideous wig, while Poe wore a beanie, a leather jacket, and large-framed hipster glasses. She swore she could see Beebee’s ears peeking out from Poe’s jacket.

As ridiculous as they looked, Rey had to admit that their disguises were actually pretty good. If Ben hadn’t pointed them out then she probably wouldn’t have even recognized them _. I am going to murder them._

Rey gulped down the rest of her drink and stood up rapidly. “Do you want to get out of here?” She flinched, realizing it sounded like she was propositioning him. “There’s a small park nearby so we can just walk around.”

Something told her that he was looking at Poe when he said, “Okay.”

She threw away their empty cups while Ben said goodbye to Maz. On their way out, she sent Finn and Poe a glare that made them squirm in their seats.

The park was definitely not the biggest, but it was large enough to warrant a jungle gym for kids and a good number of benches. Autumn leaves covered the ground and crunched under their feet as they walked along a path winding around the park. It didn’t take long to notice that people were sneaking glances at them and Rey furrowed her brows.

“They’re looking at me, not you.” Ben said as he walked beside her, his hands in his pockets.

“Because you’re so tall?” Rey joked even though she knew the real reasons.

“Maybe it’s because of my ears.”

She laughed.

The two of them walked by an ice cream stand and she wondered if it would be a bad idea to buy some when it was cold outside. She hadn’t had ice cream in so long, she hardly ever had money and it was a luxury.

“What flavor do you like?” Ben asked suddenly.

“What?”

“What flavor ice cream do you like? I’ll get one for you.”

“Vanilla, but—“

Before she could protest, he was already gone. In less than two minutes, Ben returned a vanilla ice cream cone and offered it to her.

“You didn’t have to.” She took the cone, uttering a thank you.

“I wanted to.”

She stared at the cone and whispered, “It has sprinkles on top.”

“Yeah.”

There were more parts of the park to explore and Rey was constantly wiping her face in case she had ice cream on it. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a pen filled with dogs surrounded by people. “Look, Ben. It’s one of those mobile adoption centers. Do you want to check it out?”

He nodded.

All the dogs ran over to them, very excited to see humans. With permission from the volunteer, Rey leaned over the mesh wire and petted as many as she could, laughing when they licked her hand. She looked up at Ben, expecting him to be smiling as well, but he wasn’t even paying any attention to the dogs in front of them. He was looking at a dog curled up in the corner of the pen.

“It’s a corgi,” he muttered as he walked over to the volunteer. “Why is that one not with the others?”

“That one?” The volunteer looked at the dog with pity. “Poor thing, she’s had three owners, but they always bring her back. They say she’s too aggressive.”

“I’ll take her.”

“Ben!” Rey exclaimed at the same time the volunteer said, “That’s wonderful! I love it when couples adopt together!”

Flustered, Rey went to go stand by Ben. He must’ve not heard the volunteer because he’d already started filling out the paperwork. “Ben, what are you doing?”

“Adopting a dog.”

“Are you even ready to have one?” She whispered so the volunteer wouldn’t hear. “This isn’t something you do on a whim, especially if she’s aggressive.”

“My dad left stuff at my apartment when he and Chewie III stayed the night.” The man was crazy. “I’ll buy anything else I need after work.”

“What about when you’re at work? Who’s going to take care of her then?

“I’ll take her with me.”

Rey looked at him in disbelief. “Will they let you do that?”

“Oh yeah, they will.”

He signed his name at the bottom of the form and handed it back to the volunteer who congratulated him on his new family member. Rey expected the dog to bite him when he picked her up, but she didn’t. She just looked surprised that someone was actually holding her.

The dog didn’t squirm as they walked back to the car, maybe the volunteer had been wrong about her. “What did you name her?” Rey asked.

“Nine E.”

“Why?”

“Her paperwork said she was the ninth puppy in her litter.”

“What’s the ‘E’ stand for then?”

“Nothing. It’s just an ‘E’.” He left it at that.

When they got back to the car, Rey asked one last question. “Did they tell you what color she is?”   

“Black and white,” he said as they got into the car. “I don’t have a leash yet so can you hold her while I drive?”

“Okay,” she said, taking Nine E when he handed her over. The dog didn’t growl or make any other sounds, all she did was snuggle into Rey’s lap. “Aren’t you a good girl, Nines?” Rey smiled and scratched behind her ear.

“Nines?” Ben questioned. “Her name is Nine E.”

“Yeah, I dropped the ‘E’.” Her hand moved to Nines’ back. “The name I chose is cuter.”

“You’re going to confuse her,” Ben said as he reached over to scratch under Nines’ chin. “Right, Nine E?”

Rey realized that during the time they spent together, she hadn’t once thought of him as a potential soulmate or a guy with a nice voice. Ben Solo was more than that. He was guarded and serious, not to mention a little bit impulsive, but also kind and surprisingly funny in a sarcastic way. She couldn’t remember the last time she had smiled so much with a guy who wasn’t Finn or Poe.

She wanted to know more about the man behind the sunglasses. 

"Hey, Ben?”

“Yeah?” He said as he pulled out of the parking spot and began to drive down the street. 

“I don’t have a boyfriend.”

She saw his mouth twitch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Ben adopted a dog on their 'not-date' (pretty sure it's now 'their' dog). 
> 
> Finn and Poe just wanted to make sure everything went okay, and recruited Kaydel to their cause. Hux is an idiot and almost blew Ben's cover. 
> 
> Let me state that please only adopt or buy a dog if you're willing to spend the next 10-15 years taking care of it. It is not a decision to make lightly. Ben knows how to take care of a dog because of the Chewies.


	10. Day Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not dead! The FBI Soulmate Soap Opera/Unintended Comedy lives on! 
> 
> Ben gets to use his FBI skills again!
> 
> I think this is the longest chapter so far. Big round of applause for my sister who loves me enough to stay up until 2 am to help me edit.

Silence was one of the reasons Ben chose to live alone after the incident rather than with his parent. He knew there wouldn’t be any quiet with Han and Leia around. The lack of noise never bothered him, he enjoyed it, but he never knew how much he’d miss it until he heard Luke’s snoring.

His uncle, who had oh-so graciously invited himself into his home, was only one of the reasons that Ben hadn’t slept last night or the night before that. It was not just the sound radiating from _Ben’s_ bedroom that had kept him up, but also the possibility of Luke finding out about his nightmares. There was absolutely no chance that Luke would ever allow Ben to continue working if he ever found out.

Two sleepless nights, that was okay, that was manageable.

“Your dog ate my shoe,” Luke said as he strolled out of the bedroom and into the kitchen where Ben was nursing a bowl of cereal. “Then she growled at me.”

Ben didn’t even bother to look up from his breakfast when he sluggishly replied, “I didn’t see her do it so I can’t punish her for it.”

“Well, here’s the evidence.” A wet object slammed onto the counter next to him. “You owe me a new shoe.”

Using his elbow, Ben nudged the shoe off the counter and it landed on the floor with a thud. “She’s only mad because you’re invading her territory.”

“ _Her territory?_ ” Luke gaped. “I’ve been here longer than she has!” He opened the refrigerator and grumbled. “Where’s the milk?”

“I’m out.”

Luke slammed the fridge door shut. “How do you live like this?”

Ben shrugged his shoulders. “If you don’t like my lack of milk or my dog then why don’t you go stay with mom?” He pulled out his phone. “Here, I’ll even call her for you.”

“Don’t you dare.”

“We should talk about Snoke,” Ben said, putting his bowl in the sink. “What’s the plan?”

The two of them sat on the couch, a.k.a Ben’s new bed, with Luke eyeing Nine E. warily as she lay in her bed close by. “Like I said the other day, Snoke is planning something. Something big. I don’t know the exact details, but it’s obvious that he’s going to try to take down the FBI from within.”

A frown made its way onto Ben’s face. It wasn’t like Ben didn’t believe his uncle, he’d assured Luke of that on Tuesday, but the man hadn’t provide any specifics. “If I’m going to be a double agent then I need more details. How do you know about this? How do you know that Snoke was behind me getting captured?”

Luke’s reply consisted of only one word, but that one word was enough to make Ben clench his fists until his knuckles turned white. “Praetorian.”

Praetorian.

The name echoed in Ben’s ears. It belonged to the leader of a crime syndicate called the First Order. It spanned the entire world and was responsible for a multitude of underground operations. Ben and Hux had been assigned to the case years ago, and while they were able to capture various higher up officials, they could never get close to Praetorian himself.

They got lucky, however. Those branches without leadership began to fall apart, and the First Order became sloppy. Members defected, information got leaked, and paper trails were being left behind. With the First Order crippled, Ben knew they would be able to stop Praetorian once and for all.

But that was his hubris speaking.

The First Order got sloppy, and so did Kylo Ren. _The best field agent the FBI had to offer_. He sneered at that title now.

If he was truly the best then he wouldn’t have acted on anonymous tip with barely any credibility, or ignored his superiors when they denied him permission to do so. He also should’ve known that it was a trap from the moment he stepped into that First Order compound.

Ben couldn’t remember the exact details of that day. There was the memory of arguing with Hux about who should take point, and after he won, he instructed Hux to take the side door. The corridor he led his team down, weapons drawn, was dark and void of any sound except for their footsteps. He knew something was wrong when the hallway emptied out into a room and there was a singular light on. Everything that happened next was hazy. There was a flash grenade or was it a smoke bomb? Shots were being fired from all sides, but none managed to hit him. Then he felt a prick in his neck, and he had realized too late that he’d been injected with a tranquilizer

He woke up in the chair.    

“So, you finally got Praetorian to talk?” Ben scoffed. “Took you long enough.”

Luke rolled his eyes. “Yes, I know it would’ve been faster if you were the one doing the dirty work, but you know why we couldn’t let you interrogate him.”   

“It was too personal,” he said humorlessly. They were right not to leave him in a room with Praetorian. “I presume he ousted Snoke as the true Supreme Leader and told you about the coup.”

“He did.”

“And you trust his word?” Ben leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees.

“Everything else he told us turned out to be true. Weapon dealers, drug labs, human trafficking, the locations of other First Order compounds. All of it has been verified.”

Ben met Luke’s gaze. “Then what do you need from me?”

“I need you to sneak into Snoke’s office and steal encrypted files from his computer. Anything relating to what he may be planning.”

“And he just leaves the plans to his evil plot on his computer?” Ben scoffed.

“FBI desktops are some of the most secured computers in the world and he’s using that to his advantage.”

“I need to get in undetected.”

“Snoke’s in Dallas right now,” Luke informed him. “The only thing you have to worry about is his secretary. There are no cameras in the Monitoring Department due to the secrecy of its nature.”

“Dealing with Mitaka will be easy.”

“Ben, you have to make sure that Snoke doesn’t find out about Rey.” Luke warned. “A soulmate bond is a powerful thing, he _will_ use it against you.”

“I know.”

Luke checked his watch. “It’s time for you to go.”

It only took Ben a few moments to gather his things, and when he was done, he put on his sunglasses and grabbed the leash off the coffee table. “Let’s go, Nine E.” The small dog rose from her bed and trotted over to him.

“What are you doing?” Luke asked, taking a step back when Nine E. bared her teeth at him.

As soon as he finished attaching the leash to her collar, Ben said, “I’m taking her to work.”

“Why?”

“I’m not leaving her with _you_. You clearly don’t like each other.” Luke didn’t disagree with him.

“Ben, I don’t think she likes people in general. Just you.”

“Right, and that’s something we have to work on.” Ben paused and looked down at Nine E. “She didn’t have a problem with Rey.”

There was a glint in Luke’s blue eyes. “Maybe she thinks Rey is her mommy now.”

The word ‘mommy’ was not something he’d ever associated with Rey.

Ben rolled his eyes even though he knew Luke couldn’t see them behind the glasses. “Don’t be ridiculous. It’s probably because she held her on the car ride back.”

“Don’t be daft, Ben. The two of you adopted a dog together,” Luke teased. “She’s that dog’s mommy and you’re her daddy.”

And ‘daddy’ was _definitely not_ something he’d ever associated with himself.

Heat rose to Ben’s ears. “I’m leaving now.” He pivoted on his heel, and walked out the door with Nine E. at his side. Luke was no doubt trying to provoke a reaction out of him and on his way to the subway, Ben sent a text to Leia.

He wasn’t above getting revenge.

As per subway policy, Ben had to put Nine E. in his backpack while they rode the subway to work. She didn’t squirm when she was in the bag, but he did have to stop her from barking at random people. He made the choice of carrying her until they got closer to the FBI building, and didn’t let her out until they got to the door.

Ben crouched down to her level. “Listen, you’re going to have to be good right now. Pretend you don’t hate people so we can get through the door.” Nine E. did nothing except cock her head. “Good girl.”

The security guard greeted stiffly him when he approached the metal detectors. “Good morning, Agent Ren.” The officer looked down at Nine E. “Sir, I’m afraid pets are not allowed in the building.”

“It’s not a pet,” Ben said in his most intimidating voice, the one he usually reserved for harder interrogations. “Don’t you recognize one of the best K-9 units the FBI has to offer?”

“A c-corgi, sir?”

“No, a poodle,” Ben quipped, then snapped, “Yes, a corgi. Now, can we go through?”

The guard jumped a little. “Yes, of course. Walk her through the metal detector.”

There was a swagger in Nine E.’s step as they passed through the rest of security and made it to the elevator. “I think I’m getting better at this lying thing,” he told Nine E. “You were excellent too. Maybe you should be my partner instead of Hux.”

They were halfway to the Monitoring Department when Ben remembered to turn his phones back on, he’d turned them off earlier when he was talking with Luke. When his phone vibrated, he was surprised to find that it wasn’t his work phone, but his personal phone. There was a message from a number he recognized, but hadn’t saved.

_Thank you for the ice cream yesterday. I had fun. Hope Nines is behaving! :)_

If Rey had fun then things must have gone better than he thought.

There was only a limited amount of time they could spend together, after all, he had decided that yesterday would be the only time they would be alone with each other, so he had wanted to make the most of it. He didn’t want to waste time by using public transportation so he waited until Hux went to the bathroom and stole his keys.

He had to admit that it was strange seeing Rey outside of her regular clothing, perhaps it was because he had gotten so used to seeing her in lounge wear. Her hair had been still the same messy bun as before. He’d yet to find a shade of brown that was as visually pleasing as hers.

In all honesty, he wasn’t quite sure what to think of the first part of their lunch break. He’d immediately spotted Finn and her boyfriend as they stepped through the door, then there was Maz, and Hux who’d stupidly called Ben by his codename in a text. Hux’s little mess up had forced Ben to add Kylo Ren to his already ridiculously long name.

There was also that mess with the bubble tea. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt that embarrassed, but it was worth it to hear Rey laugh. It was a really nice sound.

The park was enjoyable minus the stares people shot their way. He felt guilty when he noticed that Rey was uncomfortable with the attention, after all, it was his scar and sunglasses people were looking at.  A joke about his ears left his mouth before he knew it and when she responded with one of her own, he was glad that he was able to help her relax.

Only to throw her for a loop by adopting a dog.

Getting Nine E. was an impulsive decision, Ben wasn’t going to deny it, but he didn’t regret it. He’d always had a soft spot for animals, he had been surrounded by cats and Chewies his entire life, and when he saw Nine E. curled up in that corner, Ben knew he had to get her.

Rey was obviously shocked, neither of them planned for it, but her surprise was short-lived when she held Nine E. Despite being told that the dog was aggressive, she looked completely at peace in Rey’s arms. It seemed like they were in a name war now, Nines versus Nine E., and Ben was determined to win.

Was this how his parents felt when they cursed him with four last names? Why couldn’t they just go with Organa-Solo

Relief washed over him when Rey finally admitted she didn’t have a boyfriend. It meant that he didn’t have to run the man’s face through facial recognition software like he initially planned to.

It was unfair though, even if she was his soulmate, Ben didn’t have the right to prevent Rey from seeing other people. Not to mention the fact that he was keeping the ability to see color from her, but if he gave her that then she would become a liability, an attachment that would be used against like Luke said. That would only happen if his kept his job.

He sighed and looked down at Nine E. “Do you like Nines better?” She only sat down. “I’m going to take that as a ‘no’.”

The elevator doors opened and Ben stepped out, he gave Mitaka a quick look on his way to his desk. Mitaka couldn’t have seen Ben’s gaze through the sunglasses, but he did have that nervous expression he always had when Kylo Ren was around.

He found Hux sitting at his desk staring at his phone, scrolling down occasionally.

“Do you want to tell me why you felt the need to steal my car yesterday?” Hux asked without looking up.

Ben sat down at his desk and tied Nine E.’s leash around one of the arms of his chair. “A bus would have taken too long.”

Hux scoffed. “Get your own car then.” A low growl made his head snap up and his pale eyes zeroed in on Nine E. “What is _that_?”

“My dog,” Ben deadpanned as he turned his computer on and pulled out a dog toy from his backpack. “Say ‘hi’, Nine E.”

Nine E. growled even louder.

Hux growled back.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Ben said, exasperated. Sometimes he couldn’t believe that Hux was a grown man.

Hux pointed a finger at Nine E. “That _thing_ started it!”

“Stop growling.”

“Don’t tell me what to do!”

“I was talking to her, you idiot,” Ben said, gesturing to Nine E.

Hux grumbled, changing the subject to yesterday’s events. “So, did you kill the boyfriend?”

Ben logged into his computer. “He wasn’t her boyfriend.”

“Oh shit, you killed an innocent man then?”

Ben handed Nine E. her toy and she immediately latched onto it, he hadn’t noticed that the toy was orange until now. It vaguely resembled Hux.

“I didn’t kill him. She cleared up that misunderstanding before I did anything.” He paused. “I couldn’t decide how to dispose of the body anyways.”

“Acid is always a good idea.”

“It was hard to find a supplier on such short notice,” Ben replied.

It was more than a little disturbing that they’d reached a point in their careers where talking about attempted murder was a casual conversation. Then again, they did just throw the ashes of a dead man into a junkyard the other day.

_Wow, something is seriously wrong with us._

For once, Ben was actually doing his job, mostly because he was waiting for the perfect opportunity to sneak into Snoke’s office, but also because his weekly report was due tomorrow and he needed to figure out what to put in it. He had been so focused on avoiding her, and failing miserably, that he’d been neglecting his duties as her Handler. _At this rate, I’m never going to be reinstated as a field agent._

Ben shuffled through his desk, searching for the notes he had written over the past couple of days. There weren’t many of them, Rey didn’t do anything out of the ordinary for someone her age. Every morning she would check her emails, if she was bored then she would look up videos on YouTube, and she usually checked social media sites while riding the bus and before going to sleep. Her phone was always in her locker when she was at work. He didn’t see the point in using the virtual terminal, microphone or camera anymore, it was obvious that Rey was no danger to National Security.

It wouldn’t hurt to put a note saying so in her file.

“Stupid pilot,” Hux murmured as he was typing his own report. “How dare he forget his phone.”   

“I thought he turned it off,” Ben said as he reached down to scratch Nine E.’s head. “Wasn’t that why you sent me thirty text messages?”

 “That was yesterday.” Hux scowled. “You’re lucky, Ren. At least, your Individual has a set schedule. My guy’s all over the place!”

“What do you do when you’re waiting for him to come back online?” Ben asked as he waved the dog toy back and forth in front of Nine E.’s face, praising her when she managed to catch it.

“Would you stop playing with that beast? We’re talking about me right now.” Hux sat back in his chair and sighed, then he reached for his phone and held it out to Ben. “This is what I’ve been doing.”

Ben had to lean forward to see what was on the screen and was completely taken aback when he realized what it was. “ _You’re_ reading the _Rogue One_ novels?”

Hux snatched his phone back. “I had time and I wanted to see why you’re so obsessed with them. That’s all, you dumbass.” He went back to writing his report. It didn’t take someone who highly trained in reading body language to see that Hux was embarrassed.

 _“You liked it.”_ Ben was astonished.

Hux’s fingers froze over his keyboard and then he rubbed his temples. “Kaytoo is the only thing interesting about it.”

They left it at that.

Without their bickering, the Monitoring Department was eerily silent, only the sound of typing filled the room. Everyone was far too focused on their work to notice anything around them.

Ben looked at the time and decided to put his plan into motion. On a small piece of paper, Ben quickly wrote a note, folded it, and threw it onto Hux’s desk.

Slowly, Hux reached for the piece of paper. It was as if he thought Ben had booby trapped it. Hux’s eyes narrowed as he read the note.

_Distract Mitaka._

Hux looked at Ben and then back to the note. After rolling his eyes, he grabbed a pen, scribbled a short reply on the paper and threw it at Ben’s face. _Why?_

 _I have to get into Snoke’s office._ Ben hesitated for a moment, unsure of whether he should tell Hux the truth or not.  The two of them had been partners for almost ten years, and as irritating Hux was, he’d always had Ben’s back. With his mind made up, Ben added. _He’s planning a coup._

Hux’s eyes widened. “Are you sure?”

Ben nodded and grabbed the piece of paper out of Hux’s hand. He crumpled it into a ball and stuffed it into his backpack. “You are going to help or not?”

“Fine,” Hux answered. “How exactly do I go about this?”

“Flirt with him.”

If only he had a camera so he could’ve taken a picture of Hux’s face.

“WHAT?”

“Flirt with him.” Ben repeated.

“Bu-but,” Hux sputtered. “He’s a man and—”

“And he’s gay.”

“Really? I didn’t know that.” Hux cocked his head and then shook it. “Wait, wait, he has a soulmate. There’s no way he would be interested.”

“Just use your charm,” Ben looked him up and down. “If you have any…or do you think you can’t do it?”

Hux scoffed. “Of course, I can do it.” He stood up. “Give me the dog.”

“What?”

“Bitches love dogs.”

Ben didn’t even know how to respond. There was _so_ much wrong with that statement.

He watched as Hux untied Nine E., pulling his hands back quickly whenever the dog tried to bite him. “Behave, you little devil,” he snarled as he stood up, readjusting his jacket confidently. “Prepare to watch poetry in motion.” Hux walked over to Mitaka, dragging Nine E. along with him, and cursing silently whenever she snapped at his feet.

Mitaka looked completely horrified when he saw Hux walking up to him, and even more horrified when Hux leaned against his desk, positioning himself so that Mitaka was looking in the opposite direction of Snoke’s office. Then, Hux pointed down at the floor. “Look at Ren’s dog,” he practically ordered.

This may have been a bad idea.

Ben stood from his chair and began making his way across the department floor.

“I-it is a cute dog,” Mitaka’s voice was quiet, but he let out a squeak when Nine E. growled.

Bad idea.

“Not as cute as you.”

 _Oh, Maker._ This was a horrible idea.

Even so, Ben successfully entered Snoke’s office undetected. It was unchanged since the last time he was here, back when Snoke told him to interrogate that one woman. He pulled out a pair of gloves from his pocket, it would be unwise to leave his fingerprints on the computer. Any stray strands of hair could be explained by Ben’s earlier visit to the office.

Ben marched over to Snoke’s computer and turned it on. When asked for a password, Ben opened the Command Prompt, navigating the computer’s operating system, and modified the BIOS boot up sequence. It wasn’t long until he bypassed the computer’s security.

_Some of the most secured computers in the world, my ass._

He searched through the files on the computer quickly, no doubt what he was looking for would be hidden deep in the hard drive. There was a directory, one that was out of place on a regular FBI computer. and Ben knew that was exactly what he was looking for. Inserting a USB drive, he copied the files and was about to exit out of the computer when he saw another directory and opened it. There was only one file.

_Solo, Benjamin._

Just as he was about to open it, the fire alarm rang and caused him to snap his head up. Quickly, he copied the file and shut down the computer, leaving no trace that he was there. He pulled out the USB drive and went over to the window, peeking through the shades and seeing all the agents moving toward the stairwell.

As soon as it was clear, Ben exited the office and found Hux rushing over to him, holding a very angry Nine E. in his arms. “What happened?” Ben shouted over the blaring alarm.

“It wasn’t working and I panicked!” Hux yelled back. Then he shoved Nine E. into Ben’s arms. “Take your monster back. I’ll get your stuff, you need to go to Skywalker.”

Hux came back in no time and tossed Ben his backpack. He caught it in one hand, mindful of not shuffling Nine E. too much. “Did you get her toy?”

“Why do you sound like some father with a newborn?” Hux asked. “Yes, I got her toy.”

He swung the bag over his shoulder, pulled out his phone as he and Hux made their way down the stairs, joining the evacuation. “Luke, where are you?”

“With Han.” Luke’s answer was vague enough so that anyone was listening then they wouldn’t know what he was talking about, but Ben knew that his father only really spent his time at one place.

As soon as they were on the street, Ben turned to Hux. “Thanks.”

“Maker, that sounds wrong coming out of your mouth.” Hux hailed a taxi. “Whatever, you’re welcome. Just leave, I’ve had enough of your ugly face for today.”

“Likewise,” Ben said back and got into the taxi.

Nine E. stuck her head out of the window the entire drive to the Falcon, while Ben received notifications that Rey was using her laptop, she must have gone home already. He silenced his phone, and when they got to the Falcon, Ben gave the cabby a large tip since Nine E. had barked at him more than once.

Ben stormed through the front entrance, making Kaydel jump a little and almost drop the phone. “One second,” she said to whoever was on the other line. “Ben? Is everything alright?”

“Just here to see dad,” he answered as he walked past her and went through the back door.

He could hear her as he walked away. “Sorry. Yeah, I can’t wait either.”

Chewie III was in his bed as usual, and Ben stopped before he got any closer. He knew Nine E. hated humans, but he didn’t know how she would react to another dog. Maybe he should have put her in the office or the break room first. There wasn’t a chance to backtrack though, Chewie had already made his way over to them and they were sniffing butts.

“Okay, then.” Ben said, tying Nine E. to the leg of a workbench near Chewie’s bed. “Both of you be good.”

The garage was empty save for Han. He was hands deep in the engine of a TUG-b13 Quadjumper when he looked up. “Ben!” A huge grin appeared on his face. “You’re here!” He immediately abandoned the Quadjumper and strolled to the piece of junk in the corner. “We can get started on the car now!”

There was a large a clatter as the exhaust pipe broke off.

“Hmm,” Han hummed. “Well, that was weird.”

“We can get started later, dad.” Ben didn’t want to point out that they were mechanics, not auto body repairmen. Not to mention, they weren’t miracle workers. “Where’s Luke?”

“Luke?” Han furrowed his eyebrows. “Isn’t he in Vir—“

At that moment, a very pissed off Luke burst into the garage. “Benjamin Skywalker!”

Why couldn’t his family just agree on one last name?

Luke’s voice echoed off the walls and throughout the garage. “You told Leia I was here?”

On que, Leia appeared, looking equally as pissed off. “You should have told me you were here the moment you got off the jet!”

“Great,” Han murmured. “A Skywalker family reunion.”

Ben shrugged his shoulders. “You snore.”

“She practically kicked down your door and pulled me out by the ear!” Then, Luke rolled his eyes. “Fine, at least I don’t have to deal with your ‘daughter’ anymore.”  He turned to Han and Leia. “He’s only being petty because your grandchild is a menace.”

Their eyes widened and Leia put a hand over her heart. “Ben Amidala Organa-Solo! You—”

“I can’t believe you got Rey pregnant!” Han cut her off.

“No!” Ben exclaimed. “Dad, that doesn’t even make sense!”

“Benjamin Skywalker Organa-Solo,” Han began. “Take off those sunglasses, stare me straight in the eye and tell me you didn’t knock up some random girl.”

_Pick a damn name!_

“Poor Rey. I’m going to smack that boy.” He heard Leia whisper.

Ben groaned and ripped off his glasses, hooking them on the collar of his shirt, and looked Han in the eye. That was the first time he noticed that he must have gotten his dark eyes from his father. “I did not get a girl pregnant.”

There was a stalemate as he and Han locked eyes, then after a while his father nodded. Leia let out a sound of relief before letting out a quiet curse, while at the same time, Luke burst into laughter. “I was talking about _that_.” He pointed to Nine E., who was calmly sitting next to Chewie.

“Ben,” Han gasped, looking betrayed. “That is not a long-haired Dachshund.”

He scoffed. “I’ll get one after you die.”

“Good. The legacy of Chewie must live on.”

“She’s adorable.” Leia said. “What’s her name?”

“Nine E.”

“It’s a stupid name,” Luke said, “and she hates people.”

“Stop insulting my dog,” Ben said as he tossed the USB drive to Luke who caught it with remarkable reflexes. “That’s everything. Hux knows.”

“That’s fine,” Luke said as he examined the flashdrive. “He knows the both of you are incompetent without the other.” Then he threw it back to Ben. “You’re better with computers.”

Ben stuffed it back into his pocket, remembering the file with his name on it. Something about the fact that Snoke had used his real name, not Kylo Ren, disturbed him.

“Why do I feel like we just witnessed something we shouldn’t have?” Leia asked.

“I thought we were supposed to work on the car.” Han mumbled. 

Ben suddenly felt bad. His dad was so excited and all Ben had done was make him wait. It didn’t take long for Ben to realize that Han wanted to use this as a chance to make up for years of absence. “We can still work on it tonight. I have time.”

The look on Han’s face lit up the room.

They had no idea where to start. They stood in front of the sad vehicle and tilted their heads. “Engine,” they said at the same time and began salvaging what they could.

Leia and Chewie had left them to go talk with Kaydel, Nine E. was playing with her toy by the door, while Luke sat in a chair cheering Ben and Han on. Ben vaguely remembered sleeping in that very chair. “You can do it,” Luke said as he ate some food that he took from the break room.

“The cylinders have to come out,” Han murmured, expertly removing nuts and bolts.

“Valve train too,” Ben said, a little bit more clumsy with his tools. He hadn’t worked on a car since he was a teenager. The memory of Han tugging him out of his room and dragging him to their tiny garage flashed through his mind. He remembered sitting silently on a workbench, watching Han work until he grew bored and started to help. Han could have done anything else with his days off, but he chose to spend them with his cranky son. “Ignition line’s shot.”

It was getting to the point where they were thinking that maybe they should just get an entirely new engine.

“Dad, I think this is a lost cause.”

Han shook his head. “We must believe. Nothing is rusted and Lando got us those parts. He’s hasn’t let me down yet.”

They continued to work, sometimes in silence and sometimes they talked about random things. It wasn’t hard to tell that Han kept trying to direct the conversation to Rey, and after a while, Ben gave in. He told him how yesterday went and that she was determined to change his dog’s name to Nines.

“Luke said we’re dog parents now,” Ben deadpanned.

Han laughed, but stopped abruptly when he looked up. “Ben.”

“I know, the crankshaft and the piston rings look disgusting too,” he muttered. “Maker, all of this looks disgusting.”

“Ben!” His father said, abet more loudly this time and then he slapped his shoulder with a greasy rag. “Put on your damn sunglasses.” With the rag, Han pointed to something on the other side of the room.

He scowled at Han, now his shirt was going to be even dirtier than it already was. What was he even talking about? Ben followed the direction where Han was pointing and was unprepared for what he was saw.

“Hi, Nines!” Rey said, crouching down next to the dog and rubbing her belly. “Such a good girl!” Nine E. looked like she was in absolute bliss, kicking her leg every time Rey scratched the perfect spot. “Leia told me you were around!”

_Traitor!_

“Yup,” Han said. “That’s a dog mom.”

As she began to stand up, Ben frantically reached for his sunglasses, not even caring that he was covering the rest of his shirt in grease. He cursed loudly when he dropped them. “Fuck!”

She turned around at the sound of his voice.

Han swept Ben’s legs out from under him, making him fall to the ground with an oof. Dazed, he reached for the glasses and put them on.

“Ben!” Rey said, suddenly standing over him. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” He groaned as he stood up and rubbed his shoulder. “I must have lost my footing or something. So, what are you doing here?” _I thought you were at home on your computer._

“Oh, I almost forgot my phone in my locker.” She held up the device. “Then I started talking to Kaydel and your mom walked in. She told us that you guys were finally getting started on the car and I wanted to say ‘hi’ before I left.”

From the corner of his eye, he saw Luke setting down his food and walking over to them. _Maker, no._

 “Hello,” he said to Rey, holding his good hand out. “I’m Luke, Ben’s uncle.”

She shook his hand. “Hi, I’m Rey.”

 “Would you like to come over for dinner on Sunday?” His question caught the rest of them completely off guard. Luke grinned. “We Skywalkers always have family dinner on Sundays.”

_Old man, I will kill you._

“Are you sure? I don’t want to intrude,” Rey said.

“No, no. It won’t be a problem.” Luke looked at Ben and smirked. The bastard even had the nerve to wink at him. “Ben is an excellent cook.”

She looked at him with wide eyes. “Really?”

Ben was trying very hard to not to strangle Luke right then and there. “Apparently.”

“Oh, that’s good because I’m always hungry.” Rey beamed and then checked her phone. “I better get going. It’s getting late. ”

Han clapped his back. “It’s almost dark, Ben will walk you home.”

“I will?”

“That’s fine,” Rey said. “I’ve taken self-defense classes so I can handle myself.”

“I know,” Han said. “It’s insurance. He’s intimidating and Nines is even scarier. No one would dare get near the three of you.”

_Everyone in this family is dead to me._

She turned to Ben. “It depends on you. You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“It’s fine. Let me just get my stuff and Nines—” He quickly corrected himself. “Nine E.” 

After collecting his things, he led Rey outside and toward the bus stop, Nine E. happily trotting alongside them.

“Can I hold the leash?” Rey asked, her breath coming out in little puffs due to the cold weather. “I love it when Corgi’s walk, especially the way their butts jiggle.”

He took one look at her excited face and handed her the leash.

When they reached the bus stop, Rey picked up Nine E. and held her close, a grin broke out across her face when the dog licked her. “You know, my friend has a corgi too. He always compares him to a potato or a loaf of bread, but I don’t understand why.”

“Probably because most of them are a shade of tan,” he told her. It wasn’t until after he said it that Ben realized he’d slipped up.

Rey looked up at him, her smile had faded away and there was a hint of disappointment in her eyes. “What?”

It was only seconds later that the bus stopped in front of them and she went toward the door with tense shoulders. It would make things better for him if he’d led her to believe that he already had a soulmate. Technically, he had never denied it, he had only said that it was never a priority. Maybe she would be less inclined to spend time with him if she thought he was already bonded to someone else.

There was something about the look on her face…

“My mom told me that when she met Nine E.” Then he added for clarification. “Not like color matters to me, anyways.”

Her shoulders relaxed.

The bus was almost empty when they got on, and the driver only grunted when Rey greeted him cheerfully by name. Nine E. growled quietly every time they walked by another passenger before Rey had somehow masterfully gotten her to stop. They sat far away from other people just in case.

“So, the car…” she began. “What is it, exactly?”

If the car was so beat up that other people couldn’t recognize what it was then he and Han might as well take it to the junkyard.

“It’s a Corellian YT-1300f Falcon,” Ben told her, staring at their reflections in the window. “My dad had one. He called it the _Millennium Falcon_ because it just wouldn’t die.”

“ _That_ piece of scrap metal is a YT-1300?” She looked appalled and then suddenly very excited. “I’ve never seen one in person! Well, I guess now I have…but a YT-1300! There’s not that many left. No wonder it was calling to me the first time I saw it. I can’t believe Han named the garage after a car…actually, yes, I can.” There seemed to be no end to her rambling. “A YT-1300 is in our garage! Oh, man, I wish I could work on it.” She paused and then turned to him. “What are you guys going to do with it? Why not just restore Han’s?”

Ben was half-convinced the next thing out of her mouth was going to be ‘Can I have it?’

“I don’t know. He probably just wants to relive the glory days.” He cleared his throat. “And the old one…it kind of exploded.”

Rey’s jaw dropped. “How does something ‘kind of explode’?”

Thankfully, before he had to explain the follies of his youth, the bus called out her stop and she quickly turned to tug the cord. Wordlessly, the two of them exited the bus and, with Nine E. in between them, began to walk in the direction of her apartment building.

“It’s not much,” she said as they stood in front of the Raddus, “but it’s home.”

Neither of them moved. She didn’t inch closer to her building, nor did he pull out his phone to call a taxi. In fact, the only one who did move was Nine E., circling Ben and effectively tangling her leash around his legs before he unwound it.

Suddenly, Rey asked, “Do you want to come inside? You can sit in the stairwell. That way you and Nines aren’t trapped out here in the cold while you wait for a cab.”

Being inside was definitely preferable. “Alright.”

“I live pretty high up,” she told him when they entered the building. “The fourth floor, actually. The last floor.”

 _I know._ He kept his mouth shut as he continued to follow her.

“Well, here are the stairs,” she gestured to them like she was giving him the grand tour or something. “Thank you for coming with me.”

“No problem.”

“Right,” Rey nodded. “Good night. Thank you.” She turned to walk away only to pivot on her feet. “Can you walk me to my door? You never know what kind of weirdos could be around.”

“In your apartment complex?” Maybe he should run background checks everyone who lived in the building.

“Well, no. There aren’t any weirdos inside.” She bit her lip. “I just want to spend more time with Nines.”

_Why couldn’t she just say that from the beginning?_

He nodded and walked up the stairs with her. It wasn’t long before they reached her floor. “Here we are,” Rey said, stopping in front of her door. “I would invite you inside, but it’s a little dirty right now.”

“That’s fine.” Ben knew exactly how messy her apartment was, despite the multiple attempts to clean it.

“Okay, thanks again,” she told him and crouched down to pet Nine E.  “I’ll miss you.” Nine E. whined when Rey stood up, she simply just stared at him.

“What is it?” He asked. _Do I have grease on my face?_ He knew his shirt underneath his jacket was covered in it.

Rey took a step forward, confusing him even more. Her body language said predator. Should he be preparing himself for a fight?

“Ben, can I ki—“

Whatever she was about to say was cut off when her front door flew open, revealing Finn on the other side.

“Rey Niima! _You are late!_ ” He exclaimed. “Where have you been? No texts, no calls, no note! I even used the ‘Find Your Phone’ thing on your computer, but nothing!” That explained the notification Ben had received earlier. “I thought you’ve been kidnapped! That your body was in a ditch somewhere! That…” Finn’s sentence trailed off as soon as he noticed Ben. “Oh. Um, hello there.”

“This is my roommate, Finn” Rey said, sounding slightly irritated. “Finn, this is Ben and the dog nipping at your feet is Nines.”

Finn held out his hand, pulling his leg back when Nine E. bit the bottom of his pants. “Finn Trooper, nice to meet you.”

“Ben Solo.” He shook his hand. “You look different than you did yesterday. Nice haircut.”

“Oh, you noticed.” Finn laughed nervously. “I needed a change.”

Did this guy actually think the wig had been believable?

Rey stopped the conversation before it could go any further. “We should go inside now,” With incredible force, she shoved Finn back into their apartment. “See you later, Ben.”

The door slammed in his face.

He blinked. The youth of today were strange.

There wasn’t anything else to do except to head back to the stairs and call a cab. He was a little more than halfway there when a door opened behind him and a voice called out his name.

“Ben!” He turned to find Rey coming toward him and when she stopped in front of him, there was a determined look on her face.

“Is something wrong?”

His question was ignored when she stood on the tips of her toes and placed a hand on the back of his head, threading her fingers through his hair, so that she could pull it downwards then she closed her eyes.

Her lips gently touched his cheek.

Surprisingly, he didn’t flinched away.

Rey released him and took a step back, not showing any signs of embarrassment or regret. “You’re ridiculously tall.” Without another word, she went back to her apartment and quickly shut the door.

The stairs squeaked as Ben went down them. He called a cab as soon as he reached the bottom and sat down on the final step.

Things were becoming more complex every day.

A week ago, everything was fine. His life was normal. His job, the one he’d worked so hard for, wasn’t in jeopardy, his family kept a respectable distance and Hux wasn’t nearly as tolerable. Colors didn’t assault his eyes left and right and he didn’t have a dog. Not to mention, there certainly wasn’t a girl who clouded his judgment.

_“Hi, I’m Rey.”_

_“I’m Ben.”_

It was strange how a computer and a couple of words could change almost everything.

Ben leaned back on the stairs and Nine E. crawled into his lap. He absently stroked her back as he thought of what would happen next. There was still Snoke to deal with, and he wanted to get reinstated more than anything else. That would mean leaving Rey behind with no knowledge of their bond whatsoever, he’d be the only one dealing with the side effects, but that would just be incredibly fucked up. He needed to rethink some things. 

He groaned and stuffed his face into Nine E.’s back.

Rey had somehow managed to make both of his cheeks burn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a monster, I love teasing you guys. 
> 
> Honestly, I was going to make Hux betray Ben, but you guys loved him so much that they're the world's weirdest BFFs now.
> 
> I'm excited for next chapter because it finally addresses something I've been wanting to talk about :D

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry if it takes a long time for me to update.
> 
> I try my best to reply to every comment. :D
> 
> I also made a Reylo Tumblr blog if anyone is interested. https://www.tumblr.com/blog/bb-reylo


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